Neo-Genesis
by M'jai
Summary: (Prequel to "Spira's Dream" and "Spira's Sphere." This is book 3 in my Spira series.) Yuna mistook Shuyin for Tidus after finding a sphere that inspired her to hunt for clues about what happened to Tidus after he faded. It's no coincidence that Shuyin and Tidus look and sound alike, but what exactly is the mysterious connection between them and how did it happen?
1. Chapter 1: Born to Blitz

_**Neo-Genesis**_

(Prequel to "Spira's Dream" and "Spira's Sphere")

by M'jai

Written 9/2005

Revised 16 July 2010

Revised 31 January 2020

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This is the third story in my series of fanfictions from the Final Fantasy X/X-2 games. It is the prequel to _Spira's Dream_ and _Spira's Sphere_; it would be best to read those stories first. This story is heavily dependent on the concepts originally presented in both of those. This story is primarily about Shuyin, but Tidus comes into play later because the tale is ultimately about how Tidus came to exist. Since it breaks away from the current timeline, I've tried to write this story so that it is not necessary, although it is helpful for reading book four in the series (which picks up the current timeline again).

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Disclaimer:

The setting, characters, and inspiration for the plot all belong to Square Enix. Fans of the FFX and FFX-2 games will recognize which content is not mine. I do not even pretend to take credit for it. My appreciation goes out to Square Enix and their wonderful game designers for giving us such memorable, entertaining games.

This story is my imaginative take on what could have happened before the events in the games. Any resemblance between my fan-fic and others is unintentional. We are all playing the same game, after all, so it's pretty easy to draw some similar theories out of it.

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"... Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. That's what little boys are made of." - Old English nursery rhyme.

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Chapter 1: Born to Blitz

Though he was far from excited to be there, four-year-old Shuyin followed his father toward the indoor pool for his first day of swimming lessons. Shuyin grew up on a houseboat in the city of Zanarkand, which sprawled along the shore and into the sea. The bronze-skinned, blond-haired little boy frequently visited the beach with his parents. And his father, a sports legend in the underwater game of blitzball, had the boy playing in the tides before he could even walk. But something happened last summer that changed his opinion about water and made him shy away from it ever since. Needless to say, this was an embarrassment to the blitzball champion.

Jecht resolved to remedy his son's fear, but the more he pushed, the more the boy protested. Finally, when Shuyin ran crying to his mother, Dannae insisted that someone with more patience teach the boy how to swim. So, here they were at the local recreation center, ready to begin - or at least Jecht was ready. Little Shuyin still wanted to run the other way.

"Oh my!" The instructor beamed as Jecht strolled down the poolside toward her. "Wow, it really is you! I thought someone had made a mistake when I saw your name on my registration list. It's such a pleasure to meet you! My husband and sons are big fans of the Abes. They'll just die when I tell them your son's in my swim class," she swore, laughing with embarrassment.

Jecht grinned. "Always nice to meet an Abes fan."

"And you must be Jecht, Jr." The swim instructor joked as she crouched and held out a hand to the little boy hiding behind his father's knees. The boy didn't respond until his dad thumped the back of his head to prompt him out of his shyness. When he slipped his small hand into hers, she shook it. "Are you wanting to swim so you can play blitzball like your daddy?"

"No," the boy answered honestly in a quiet voice.

Jecht's grin turned into a strained smile, but he kept his composure. "Last summer at the beach, he was trying one of my trick shots when a wave pulled him under. He won't go anywhere near the water now. I tend to have a sink or swim philosophy, so the wife insists he might respond better to someone else's way of doing things."

The instructor nodded in understanding and looked to Shuyin. "Well, have a seat on the side of the pool with the other kids, and I'll be there in a few minutes."

Jecht bent hands-to-knees, eye-level with his son. "Do what she says, and no crying. I mean it. You're the king of the tidal waves, remember? King Tidus! Compared to tides, pools are easy. I'll be sitting over there." Taking the boy's towel, he gave the boy's back a light push and slapped his backside to send him on his way. Then he headed to the benches near the wall where the other parents were seated.

With his head hung low, Shuyin walked to the end of the line of children sitting along the poolside. All of the other children paused at splashing their feet in the water to stare at him as he sat down next to a girl about a head taller. He dipped his feet into the pool, too, but then lifted them back out and watched the water bead and run down his ankles. He really didn't want to do this. And it made matters worse that this girl was still staring at him.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Shuyin."

"Mine's Kaila. How old are you?"

"Four."

"Me, too. So is my brother. We're twins. That means we were born at the same time." She pointed down the line to her brother that was talking to some of the other boys. The fraternal twins both had dark brown hair and eyes of hazel flecked with green and gold specks, making them look almost identical. "Are you scared?"

He frowned at her assumption. "No."

"You look scared."

"I'm not scared." He puffed out his ribs and folded his arms over his chest, then turned away. But his defiance only made the girl giggle.

The instructor slipped into the pool from the edge and stood before her young swimmers. "Hello," she greeted everyone with a friendly smile. "My name is Miss Naori, and the first thing I want to talk to you about is how to safely enter the pool." She began her instruction by laying down rules about not running or jumping. Next, she helped each child enter the water and hold onto the non-slip rail along the side, just below the surface. But when she came to Shuyin, he backed away and drew his knees to his chest. "It's okay," she assured him. "I'll hold onto you, and you can hold onto the rail."

The boy shook his shaggy mop of hair in protest.

"You won't have any fun sitting on the sidelines."

Shuyin stood to walk away, but Jecht had already left the benches to intercept. "Get back over there."

"I don't want to."

"Well, you're gonna." Turning the boy's shoulders, Jecht pushed him back toward the pool.

Over his shoulder, Shuyin gave his father a pleading look. "Please, can't I just go home?"

Disgusted, Jecht picked him up and set him back down on the pool's edge. Miss Naori reached to help the boy into the water, but he wrapped his arms around his father's leg.

"No! I don't want to!" Shuyin tried not to cry, but tears started to form in spite of his effort.

"Let go of me and get in the water," Jecht ordered through gritted teeth, trying to keep his waning patience in check.

The boy didn't care that his behavior was humiliating his father. He just knew he didn't want any more water up his nose or down his throat. "But, my leg hurts!"

"Your ass is going to hurt too if you don't do as I say." Jecht pried Shuyin's arms away and picked him up again to make him face the instructor.

Shuyin turned to run, but he was snatched up by his strong father and deposited back at the pool's edge. "Get in the damn water!"

"It's ... okay." Naori tried to keep the situation calm. "If it scares him that much, he can sit and watch this time."

"If he whines his way out of it once, next time it will be worse. He's got to learn how to face his fears." Jecht crouched and roughly turned the boy's shoulders around to face him. "You live on a houseboat, for crying out loud. What if you fall off the pier or deck when your mom and I aren't around? You _have_ to learn how to swim whether you like it or not."

Through his tears, Shuyin could see Kaila laughing at him. That made him even more desperate to go home. He started to tug, hit, and kick to escape his father's grip on him. He hated Jecht at that moment. He hated him with all his little heart.

Jecht looked to the instructor with disgust. "Looks like we're going to have to do this the hard-headed way. Ready?"

Naori stretched her arms out as Jecht lifted the squirming boy and gave him a toss.

Shuyin started to cry out, but water filled his mouth and nose, choking any further protest. It was only a second before the instructor lifted his head and shoulders above water and wrapped his shivering, rigid body securely in her arms, but the trauma of that second lasted for several minutes as he coughed and gasped for air. Blinking chlorinated water from his bright blue eyes, he coughed violently and clung to her neck with white-knuckled strength. Now all the children were laughing at him.

"I've got you. You're okay. What was it your dad called you? King Tidus? My, that's a courageous name. It sounds like the name of an ocean god, doesn't it? Tidus, I promise I won't let go of you, okay? But if you let go of me, you'll go under again. So, hold onto me nicely until I can show you how to blow bubbles under the water, okay?"

Shuyin continued to cry in anger and humiliation as Miss Naori's attention shifted to instructing the other children. When it came time for him to stick his face in the water, however, she had another struggle on her hands. Eventually, she gave up trying to accomplish anything else with him that day. Getting him into the water had been enough of a challenge for both of them.

Jecht struggled to remain on the sidelines during instruction, but even from the pool, Shuyin could see the anger written all over his father's face. He knew what that scowl meant for the ride home.

By the end of the class, the boy was worn out from the ordeal, and Miss Naori carried him out of the pool to set him down at his father's feet. She remained calm, but Shuyin could tell she was upset with him too.

"I agree with you that he does need to be in the water, even if we can't get him to do anything else, but I can't hold him like that in future classes. If he refuses to hold onto the rail next time, you'll have to get in the pool and hold him so I can work with the other kids."

"Go get your towel," Jecht gruffly told his son and turned to speak some more with the instructor.

The boy gladly left to grab his towel and wrapped the bulky, warm thing around his shivering shoulders. His eyes, nose, and mouth all burned with chemicals now.

Kaila tapped his shoulder and held out two treats. "Want a piece of candy? You can have butterscotch or strawberry."

Shuyin sniffled and rubbed his runny nose with his fist, but who was he to turn down candy? "Strawberry?"

She deposited the red-wrapped treat into his prune-wrinkled palm. "You were really funny today. When I'm scared like that, my mommy always gives me a kiss." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, startling him into wide-eyed disbelief. Giggling at his reaction, she then patted his head as if he were a puppy.

"But I wanted the strawberry one," her brother complained as she gave him the butterscotch instead. "Hey, are you going to cry like that again tomorrow?" the other boy asked Shuyin. "Because you were really noisy. Mama says I'm noisy, but that was really, _really_ noisy!" He rolled his eyes dramatically.

Shuyin's brows knit together in determination. "I'm not coming back."

"But then you won't learn how to swim." The brown-haired boy struggled with his candy wrapper, but eventually freed the piece and popped it into his mouth. "I want to learn how to swim so I can play blitzball."

This again. Shuyin scowled at his cold toes. "My dad's a blitzball player."

"He is? What team is he on?"

"Abes." Shuyin unwrapped his piece of candy and ate it, taking care to lick his fingers where some of the powdered sugar rubbed off on them.

"I went to some of their games. My name is Koji. What's yours?"

"Let's go, _King Tidus,_" Jecht sardonically ordered his son as he passed, anxious to leave.

Koji's nose scrunched up. "King Tidus?"

"Sometimes, my dad calls me Tidus. But my name is Shuyin," the boy firmly corrected, balancing for a moment on one prune-wrinkled foot to inspect the bottom of the other.

"Oh. Okay. See you tomorrow, Shuyin." Koji waved. His sister, Kaila, waved beside him.

"Shu! Some time today would be nice," Jecht called from the door.

"I gotta go." Shuyin ran on his toes across the rough tile to where his dad was waiting.

"What's in your mouth?" Jecht held the door open.

"Candy. Kaila gave it to me."

"You've got to be kidding. You don't deserve candy after that pathetic performance."

Shuyin stopped and turned to wave at his new friends before following his father outside. He decided he would give this swim thing another try. He wanted to see Koji and Kaila again.

))((

Word spread that Jecht's son was taking swim lessons, but to blitzball fans, he might as well have started the boy's spring training for the major leagues. Each time Shuyin passed a new level, people praised him for taking to water like a little eel. People expected great things from him, especially his father. After all, he was the son of a blitzball champion. The only person who didn't seem to care whether he passed or failed his swim tests was Koji.

As their skills grew, the boys began challenging one another to breath-holding contests. Within a year, both joined the local mini-league team, the Zanarkand Sea Stars.

One weekend, Jecht invited Koji's family to join theirs for a deep-sea fishing trip. After Dannae and the twins' mother rubbed all three children from head to toe in sunscreen, Jecht and Koji's father showed the kids how to bait their hooks, then sat on the deck supervising their lines, drinking beer, and discussing blitzball while they waited for some fish to bite.

Shuyin tired easily waiting, so he propped his little fishing rod and returned to one of the bait buckets. Squatting to study the bait, he pinched one of the longest worms and took it to Koji. "Look how big this one is. And it has no eyes or anything."

Equally bored, Koji propped his rod the way Shuyin had and stood to inspect the worm. "Let me hold it."

Shuyin dropped the wriggling creature into his friend's cupped hands.

"Uwa! It tickles! Aaah!" Koji laughed and swung around, opening his hands to drop the thing wherever it happened to fall. _Wherever_ just happened to be on his sister's shoulder.

Kaila screamed and scrambled away from the worm, letting go of her fishing rod and losing it over the side of the boat as she ran to her mother. Koji rubbed his palms on his shorts to get rid of the tickly sensation, while Shuyin cracked up in a fit of giggles.

"What the ..." Jecht and Koji's father looked over their shoulders at the frightened girl and the laughing boys.

"Shuyin and Koji threw worms at me!" Kaila wailed.

The two men glared at the boys.

"It was just one," Shuyin corrected, still giggling. "And it was an accident."

The two men exchanged glances of doubt.

"You did it on purpose!" Kaila countered.

"Did not!" Koji argued.

Koji's mother stood from her deck chair, gave her boy a scolding glance, and transferred his fishing rod into his sister's hands. "Well, you can just claim whatever fish he was going to catch."

Kaila stuck her tongue out at her brother and happily took his fishing spot and rod.

"I said I didn't do it on purpose!" But the battle was lost before it barely started, so Koji made a face at his sister, then turned around in a huff to face Shuyin.

Shuyin, still giggling, picked up the worm that had caused the stir and took it back to the bait bucket. "You can help me catch my fish, Koji." Shuyin's curiosity moved him to another bucket, where he untied the rope and pulled up the lid. "Ugh!"

Koji drew near to see what else Shuyin discovered. "Crabs! Look at those pinchers. I wouldn't want to be pinched by one of those."

"My dad said they pinch off fingers and toes," Shuyin told him as he put the lid back down. "One time, when we were at the beach, this big blue crab came out of the sand and almost bit me right here." Shuyin pointed to his foot.

"You've got a bite, boy!" Jecht interrupted the adventurous tale. "Come reel it in!"

Excited, Shuyin ran to his dad's side and grabbed the rod. He started to wind it in quickly when Jecht stopped him.

"No, no, no. Not like that." He demonstrated a better way to pull the fish up without losing it, then passed the rod back to his son.

"You said I could help," Koji reminded him of his promise.

Shuyin reluctantly passed his fishing rod to his friend.

"Pull easy. Keep it tight." Jecht helped Koji reel it closer.

"My turn! My turn!" Shuyin reached for his pole, unable to let his friend have all the fun.

"Musical fishing poles," Jecht commented with a chuckle to Koji's dad behind him as he shifted the rod into Shuyin's hands. When the fish came to the surface, Jecht raised the boy's arms until they were way over his head and leaned over the rail to grab the line before their catch could wiggle off the end of the hook.

"I caught one! I caught one!" Shuyin jumped up and down and reached for his fish.

"What did I tell you about grabbing?" Jecht warned. "You want a hook through your thumb?"

Shuyin obediently stepped back and stopped reaching but still jumped up and down as he impatiently waited to be handed his fish.

"Kid's going to make us look like a couple of losers," he joked over his shoulder to Koji's dad. "Hey, toss me another beer, will ya?"

"Sure thing." With a chuckle, Koji's dad headed to the cooler.

"All right! Biggest catch for you yet, I think. There you go. It's a live wire. You got it?" Jecht asked as his son cradled the large fish in his arms against his chest.

"I got it!"

"Yay! Good catch!" Dannae clapped and held up a memory sphere to record it.

Shuyin turned to show the fish to Koji. "See, these red feather things are his gills. And he has little teeth." He ran his finger over the inside of the gasping jaws.

Koji touched a hand to the fish's rainbow scales and cautiously stuck a finger in its mouth.

"And if you poke their eyes from one side, they'll turn inside out," Shuyin informed him.

"That's gross." Kaila had come to see the fish too. "Poor fish. Why would you want to poke its eyes inside-out?"

Shuyin shrugged. "They're dead anyway after they've been out of the water for a while. It's kind of cool to see what's underneath. You want to hold it?" He held the fish out to her, but as he released it, it found some more energy and flipped and flopped out of his arms onto Kaila. The girl screamed again and ran back to her mother, leaving Shuyin and Koji to try to grab the thrashing fish.

"Knock it off!" Jecht pulled his son's shoulder away from the fish. Koji stepped out of the blitzball player's way. Jecht snatched the fish by its tail and carried it to a cooler filled with water. "If you can't behave nicely to Kaila, I'm shipping your ass back inside, got it?"

Shuyin blinked in surprise at the scolding. "But -"

"No buts!" Jecht scowled, pointing a can of beer at his son. "Little hellions," he grumbled under his breath, returning to his own fishing reel.

Shuyin stared at the closed container, lower lip sliding into a pout. How dare his father ruin a perfectly good day by taking away his fish and accusing him of …

"What's a hellion?" Koji asked.

"I don't know, but it means he's mad." Shuyin sat down on one of the insulated buckets and dropped his chin into his fists to sulk.

Koji sat down beside him in the same pose. "It's all Kaila's fault."

"Stupid Kaila," Shuyin agreed.

Kaila came to them, giggling behind her hand. "You're sitting on the crabs and worms, you know."

Koji's and Shuyin's eyes widened before they yelled in horror and jumped off the insulated buckets. The buckets tumbled sideways and the unsecured lids fell off, spilling worms, water, and small blue crabs onto the deck. All three children screamed and tumbled over each other running toward the cabin door, seeking safety from the finger-and-toe-stealing pincers.

))((

Jecht cursed under his breath and whipped the towel from around his neck that he'd been using to dry perspiration. "Sweet Mother of Baaj on a hot summer day! I'm gonna be stringing that boy up by his ankles before we dock again!" He and Koji's father worked quickly to scoop the crabs back into the box before they could scuttle away, hopefully without stepping on any of them.

Laughing, Dannae turned the sphere recorder on. "Like father, like son. I seem to remember your father telling me about a time when you went shrimping and knocked over the -"

"Don't even go there! That is _your_ kid, not mine." But Jecht laughed despite his denial. "You had fun with the ice cream man while I was at a game or something."

After the last of the loose crabs was stuffed back into the container, Dannae turned off the sphere and gave Jecht a big hug and a kiss for saving her. "My hero." Yes, Jecht was gruff, arrogant, and easily annoyed. But he could also be funny, warm, loyal, and honest. He was a hard worker, full of passion, giving everything he had to whatever challenge he took on, until he had nothing left to give. Jecht was one of a kind in her eyes. That was why she loved him so.


	2. Chapter 2: Forging a Guardian's Soul

Chapter 2: Forging a Guardian's Soul

Though Shuyin lived on the harbor and Koji lived in one of the high-rise apartments overlooking the bay in the Neon District, their childhoods melded together over the years. They met every day on the pier near Shuyin's houseboat and walked to school. After lessons, they attended blitzball practice until the coaches chased them out of the water. And then, they would walk to Koji's apartment and play games until it was time for Shuyin to head home for dinner.

Their favorite game was a holographic race called "Viper Maze," and when Shuyin came close to beating Koji's high score, the competition became fierce. The boys got so immersed in shouting at each other and jumping on the furniture that they barely noticed when Kaila and her girlfriends came into the living room, bearing unhappy frowns, folded arms, and clenched fists.

"Are you _still _playing that stupid game? You've played it for the thousandth time already, and we're trying to work on a school project." She flipped one of her long, brown piggy tails over her shoulder.

"Shut up, Kaila. You're ruining my concentration." Koji was frantic to keep up with every corner that his snake turned, catching mice and frogs while avoiding the hawks. He had just caught one of the special blue mice that would transform his snake into a robot, giving it more speed and power, and he was hell-bent on overtaking Shuyin.

Sitting forward on his toes and knees, tongue poised in the corner of his mouth, Shuyin thumbed his controls with equal intensity.

Kaila rolled her eyes, touched the light sensor to brighten the room, and opened the closet where their mother kept the craft materials.

"What are you doing?" Koji shouted, glancing over his shoulder. "Turn the light back off! It's killing the graphics! I can't see what I'm doing!"

"I need to see what I'm looking for," she fussed back at her brother.

"Kaila! Turn it off!" Shuyin joined the argument but continued playing.

"No! And you can't make me." She stuck her tongue out at them.

Before Koji could complain any further, Shuyin's snake crossed the finish line. "Woohoo!" Shuyin jumped up from the floor and danced around his friend. "I beat your high score! I beat your high score!" he sang and laughed.

"Only because my stupid sister turned the light on, and I couldn't see!" Koji threw his game controller at the sofa.

Shuyin wiggled his backside at his friend and continued his sing-song victory dance. "Oh yeah, I _did_ it. I really _did_ it. I really _beat_ ya. I kicked your _boo_-_tay_! I'm the best!"

Koji shoved him aside and stood. "Stop bragging about it!"

Shuyin stopped dancing and blinked at his friend. He meant no harm in gloating. He just loved winning. But he had no talent at being gracious about it because he had learned how to act like a winner from his dad.

Marching to the light switch, Koji snapped it off and glared at his sister. Kaila glared right back and him and turned it back on. He snapped it off again. She snapped it on but then covered the switch with her hand. "Let go, or I'm telling mom!" Koji tried to pry his sister's hand away from the wall.

"I need the light to see in the closet! Leave it alone!"

As the argument turned into a shoving match, Shuyin could tell Kaila's girlfriends were debating whether to help her gang up on Koji. Since he was an only child, Shuyin never knew quite what to do when the twins quarreled. But when the other girls made a grab for Koji's arms, he forgot all about his victory and scanned the room for some kind of help to break up the fight. He considered throwing the sofa's pillows at them, but that would probably make Koji and Kaila's mother angry—especially if he accidentally hit the lamp. Then, his eye fell on the small bag on the tea table. A mischievous grin spread across his face because he knew he'd found the perfect solution. "Hey, Kaila, want to see what I bought on the way home from school today? It's really cool!" Snatching the bag from the table, he held it up with a shake.

Kaila stopped tugging at her brother's arm, and Koji pulled free. He was still angry, but then he saw what Shuyin was holding and grinned. "Yeah, go see what Shu's got in the bag," he encouraged.

The girls studied Shuyin and the bag with wary curiosity. "Is it candy?" Kaila asked as he approached.

"Well, I was going to buy some sour balls, but today I wanted these instead." Sticking his hand into the bag, Shuyin scratched around inside of it as if counting out pieces to share. Then, he withdrew his hand with a sudden jerk and a dramatic yell. Several authentic-looking rubber snakes flew into the girls' faces. The trick made the boys suffer several ear-piercing screams, but it proved amazingly effective at clearing the girls away from the light switch. Koji and Shuyin howled with laughter, picked up the rubber snakes, and dangled them in the girls' faces as they chased them around the living room.

"Quiet!" someone finally shouted above the noise.

All five children froze in place and looked toward the kitchen where the twins' mother stood. "What in the world is going on here?"

"Shuyin threw rubber snakes at us, and Koji won't let me turn on the light!" Kaila pointed to the architects of her misery.

Shuyin's brows drew together beneath his scruffy bangs, and his face pinched in distaste. No wonder Koji hated having a sister.

"You put these right back where they came from, young man," their mother fussed at him. "And don't take them out again, or I will be keeping them on top of the fridge for the rest of your visit. Koji, leave the switch alone, or you'll break it. And turn that game off! You've been on it all day. Burn off some of that energy outside instead."

When his mother finished her scolding and headed back into the kitchen, Koji looked to Shuyin and snickered. Both boys giggled with pride at their mischief as they began picking up the snakes.

"Hey!" Shuyin complained as Kaila heeled the head of his favorite snake on her way back to the closet.

"Hmpf!" Kaila grabbed an armful of colored paper, scissors, tape, and glue before turning up her nose and heading back to her room with her friends.

"Blaaaah ..." Koji wiggled one of the snakes before Shuyin's nose and laughed. After sweeping the longish, brown bangs from his eyes, he held up a hand for a high five.

Shuyin returned the gesture and giggled some more. It didn't matter that they had been called down for the stunt. The girls had been successfully chased away. Life was good.

))((

Placing his foot on the blitzball to position it just right and tugging at the hem of his T-shirt, Shuyin backed along the length of the houseboat deck, then ran forward, intending to kick the ball into an imaginary net. His foot, however, missed the ball completely, and he fell on his back instead. Getting back up, Shuyin stared at the ball, then exhaled with a defeated sigh.

He had just come back from one of his father's games. And while he was always excited to see the Abes play, he had endured having his head scrubbed by his father's teammates and being called Jecht Jr., Sea Squirt, Tidus, Sport, and multiple other names that glossed over the one given to him at birth, only to be reminded upon coming home that watching his dad in action always led to feelings of disappointment in himself. So he didn't notice that Jecht had come home until he looked up and found his father mocking his discouraged expression.

Still half-dressed in his Abes uniform, Jecht was high on his team's hard-earned win. "Well, well. Trying to follow in my footsteps, are you? I usually charge for lessons, you know. That shot is done ... like this!" The blitzball pro kicked and punched the ball against the center mast of the houseboat, volleying it until it was high in the air. Then, he leaped into a spinning flip, slam-kicked the ball back down onto the deck, and landed on his feet again as if the shot had been effortless. "You can't do it, kid. But don't worry, my boy. You're not the only one. No one else can do it. I'm the best!"

Shuyin had turned his back on the man, steaming silently to himself while his father showed off the spectacular trick shot. It wasn't the first time Jecht mocked his son's shortcomings in the sport. Walking away without answering, Shuyin went inside and plopped down on one of the curved sofas in the center of the living room. Then, he pointed the remote control toward the two large, flat screens that hung near the opposite wall.

Jecht chuckled and tossed the ball so that it bonked the back of his son's head. "Is that how you're going to play your own game this weekend? Missing a kick like that? I think you'd better practice some more before you watch any movies."

Annoyed, Shuyin rubbed the back of his head. "Can you come to my game this time?"

"You want me to skip out on the Abes to watch a bunch of Sea Squirts?"

"Sea _Stars_," Shuyin indignantly corrected. Jecht had been calling them squirts instead of stars ever since the boy was signed onto the league, but his son didn't find the joke very funny.

"I'm bound to a contract, boy. I have to do what the contract says." Jecht sighed, tired, and headed to the kitchen. "Damn contracts," he muttered to himself as he went.

Shuyin knew that probably meant he wasn't coming ... again.

Dannae entered into the living room as Jecht left and was headed for the kitchen as well when she spotted her son sprawled on the sofa. "Don't you have something else to do before you watch something tonight? Homework and piano practice come to mind." She took the remote from him and turned off the screens.

The boy groaned. If his father wasn't telling him to practice blitzball, his mother was telling him to practice piano. With a heavy sigh, Shuyin pushed himself up from the sofa and went to his bedroom. Sitting down at his keyboard, he stared at the keys, but all he could think about was his pathetic attempt at the Jecht-shot and how his father mocked him. With a growl, he hit the keyboard with his fists and then slumped forward, banging his head against the keys as well.

His mother, who had been passing by, paused at the awful noise and looked in the door. "Shu?"

The boy lifted his head and rubbed the bump he'd given himself above one eye. "Will you be coming to my game this weekend?"

"Of course." Dannae chuckled as she moved to his side and parted his sun-streaked bangs to examine his forehead. "Unless you do yourself in here and now for the sake of a few piano lessons."

"Do you think Dad will come? It's not an ordinary game. It's the All-City Mini-League Tournament, and the Sea Stars are in the final round."

"I'm sure he wants to go. I know he would if he could. But … he's under a lot of stress right now from the owner and manager of the team. Your game schedules conflict. But his wins put food on our table, so he has to give them priority."

"What if the Sea Stars don't win?"

"Well, second place is still something to be proud of."

"No, it's not! Second place isn't good enough! What if I mess up again? I just _have_ to learn how to kick a good shot!" He banged the keyboard with his fist.

"Shuyin!" His mother pulled his hand away from the instrument. "This keyboard cost a lot of money. You know better than to lose your temper on it like that."

"He loses his temper all the time!" the boy angrily answered.

"_You_ are not your father," she sharply answered, but then lowered her voice since Jecht was in the next room. "Your father is a passionate man. Sometimes, he expresses his likes and dislikes without thinking of the consequences. And sometimes, yes, he has a short fuse when he's frustrated. But he sticks with difficulties until he conquers them." There was no denying Jecht had spontaneous moments of disorderly conduct—some of which haunted his contracts even now—but Dannae tried to teach her son better ways to channel his emotions and impulses. Only when she was certain that he would not hit the keyboard again, was she willing to release his hand. "You can learn how to do difficult things, too, if you don't give up trying. But you are not your father, Shu," she gently repeated before kissing the top of his head and walking away.

The boy glared at the song sheet facing him and hung his head. "No, I'm not ... am I."

))((

"Congratulations to this year's All-City Blitzball Champions—the Sea Stars!" the announcer declared as the small gathering of parents and friends at the end of the half-filled sphere pool cheered and applauded.

Still in his water-logged, blue uniform with the bright yellow starfish on the chest, Shuyin eagerly scanned the crowd. He had come to the game with Koji's family, as usual, and played without being able to see the spectators. But now that the teams were ready to receive their awards, he was eager to know where his own family was. His dad wasn't here—no surprise—but at least that meant Jecht wouldn't be mocking him from the sidelines for the number of times he missed the ball or fumbled a pass. His mother, however, usually tried to split her time between her husband's and son's games, and this wasn't just any game. His mother should be here; she _said_ she would be here. But Shuyin couldn't find his mother's face in the crowd.

Next to him, Koji waited anxiously for his name to be called. When his moment of recognition arrived, the boy stepped forward, received his miniature trophy cup, bowed, and returned to his place in line. He waved at his sister and parents, and they waved back at him. Then he showed his trophy to Shuyin, grinning with pride their shared achievement.

Shuyin grinned with him but felt compelled to scan the stands one more time. Where was she?

"And last but not least," the announcer spoke to the small gathering, "playing right forward, we shouldn't be surprised to see the son of the Abes most valuable player standing in our winner's circle. Let's all give a big hand to our little king of the tidal waves! He's got Jecht's blood, folks, so I'm sure we'll be seeing lots more of him in the future!"

Somewhat chagrined, Shuyin stepped forward to receive his first-ever championship trophy, answering to the name his dad teased him with since his near-drowning incident when he was three. Not knowing the story behind the name, the crowd cheered. Koji's parents cheered. Even Kaila cheered. All those people were cheering … for _him_. And as the boy basked in his moment of glory, he realized that however bad his father thought he played, other people seemed to think he played great.

"Congratulations once again to the Zanarkand Sea Stars! This year's All-City champions!" the announcer repeated.

Shuyin bowed, returned to his place in line, and at their coach's cue, all of the Sea Stars bowed again to the officials and their supporters in the stands.

With the closing ceremony done, everyone walked off the awards stage at the end of the pool and headed for their friends and family in the bleachers.

"Great game!" Koji's father congratulated both boys. "Did you have fun out there?"

Shuyin blinked in surprise at the question. He had been trying so hard to keep up with the ball that thoughts about the game being fun never entered his mind.

"I had so much fun! I want to do it again next year!" Koji responded. "Did you see my trophy?"

"Let me see that trophy." Koji's father accepted the offering. "_That_ is a mighty fine trophy. I know just where we'll put it when we get home."

"A fine trophy indeed!" The Sea Stars coach shook hands with Koji's father as he came to speak with them. "Hard-earned! And there's going to be a party at the Waterwall Sports Diner in about thirty minutes for all the team members and their families."

"Alright!" Koji took his trophy back from his dad.

"And you!" The coach playfully bopped Shuyin on the head with his game folder. "Bring Jecht with you if you can. We'd love to have him celebrate with us, even if he couldn't attend the match."

"Think your mom will let you come to the party with us?" Koji asked.

"Mmm ... I don't know." Shuyin scanned the faces of the dispersing crowd once more but still didn't see his mother among them.

"Did Dannae not come this time?" Koji's mother asked, scanning the crowd as well.

Shuyin didn't know how to excuse his mother's absence. "I don't see her."

"That's odd. I know she was planning on coming to this one. Well, never mind. You're both soaking wet and need to get out of those uniforms. Go change, and we'll drop you off at the docks so you can ask to go to the party. If she can't take you, you can tag along with us. Okay?"

"Okay." Shuyin smiled. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he turned around to face Kaila's outstretched hands with two candy choices. That, too, had become part of their childhood routine after games.

Koji started to reach for the red wrapper, but Kaila closed her fingers over it and offered him the yellow-wrapped candy instead. "Shuyin likes the strawberry ones."

"Well, that's not fair," Koji protested. "So do I. How come he gets to have it?"

"He had more kicks than you this time." Kaila gave Shuyin the strawberry candy.

"Did not."

"Did too," she insisted.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Shuyin was content to let them argue as usual while he ate his candy.

"Ask Mama. I counted to see which one of you did better."

"Kaila, that's not very nice," her mother scolded.

"Shuyin had two more kicks than Koji." The girl pressed her brother for his failure.

"Keh! You're just letting him have the strawberry one because you like him." Koji got in his sister's face. "Kaila's crushing on Shuyin!"

Shuyin nearly choked on his candy.

"I am not!" Kaila reached across Shuyin to smack her brother.

"Are too!" Koji giggled. "Kaila and Shuyin sitting in a tree - k-i-s-s-i-n-g -"

"That's enough of that." Their mother pulled the twins apart and gave her son the scolding look this time. "Go put some dry clothes on."

Shuyin, recovering from nearly swallowing his candy, looked at Kaila as if she had some kind of contagious disease. Kaila folded her arms in a huff and turned her back on her brother. Her eyes cut toward Shuyin, but he immediately avoided eye-contact. Turning away, he ran for the locker room to change clothes like their mother said.

))((

"The Snake" was the affectionate name the boys called the transport system that worked on a blend of magic and machina to move people around the city so fast it was almost hard to see except for the flashes of light at intersections. When it stopped at the harbor near Shuyin's home, Koji's family waited at the station, and the boys ran to the docks to ask Dannae about going to the party. "You can take the strawberry one next time, okay?" Shuyin tried to appease his guilt over the candy incident.

"Okay. Did you see Kaila's face?" Koji cracked up again. "She really likes you, or she wouldn't have been _that_ mad about it."

"Gimme a break." Shuyin rolled his eyes. "After all the things we've done to her? There's no way!"

"Girls are weird, Shu." Koji stopped to rest a hand on his best friend's shoulder while doling out expert advice. "Trust me. If you pick on them, they just keep coming back for more." He shook his head at the astonishing truth.

"Well ... what should I do about it?"

"If you want her to go away, you're going to have to ignore her."

Shuyin nodded with determination. "Ignore her."

"Right! If you want her to hate you, ignore her. Oh, and you might have to play a few bad games, too, so she's not impressed."

Shuyin's jaw dropped, aghast. "I can't _try_ to play badly. I like winning."

Koji sighed as if his friend were a hopeless case. "Then get used to lots of girls liking you."

Shuyin made a face and gave the situation some thought. "Think Kaila will still bring me candy if I ignore her?"

"Probably not."

"Hmm ..." More girls and less candy. Shuyin wasn't sure this winning stuff was worth it. "I still want to win, but maybe I can bring my own candy after games. I just have to put it somewhere other than my pocket to keep it from getting wet."

"Ask your mom to hold it for you." He looked down at their trophies and grinned again. "Let's go show her what she missed!"

Shuyin looked down at his own trophy and nodded with a grin. Catching Koji's enthusiasm, he ran the rest of the distance down the pier to the houseboat. "Wait 'til my dad sees this! He'll really want to come to my games when he sees that we won!" At the front door, he grabbed the handle and pushed the door open wide, letting Koji into the living room behind him.

The boys arrived just in time to witness Jecht striking his wife with a back-handed slap, knocking her to the floor. Jecht reeked of alcohol again, and Dannae had been crying. Holding a hand to her stinging cheek, she looked apologetically to her wide-eyed son and his friend. Shuyin and Koji stood mute for a long moment, neither knowing what to say or do about what they had witnessed.

"What are you looking at? You got something to say to me, boy?" Jecht bellowed to his son.

Shuyin ran to his bedroom.

Scared of what might happen next, Koji ran with him.

Shuyin slammed his door shut and pitched the championship cup across the room, hitting the opposite wall. He threw it so hard that it left a large dent in the plaster before it landed softly on the bed. Then, he dragged Koji underneath the bed with him, where he always hid when Jecht was angry … especially if he'd been drinking. It was safe there. Shuyin's heart raced as he clenched his fists and teeth. No words could express his anger, hurt, frustration, and embarrassment—only a throaty growl escaped him.

"Maybe we should go to my house instead," Koji whispered.

Shuyin shook his head. "No. I need to be here. He only hurts her when he thinks I'm not looking. This is why she couldn't come. I shouldn't have gone, but … I thought he had his own game." Tears began to sting his eyes, and he shook his head again at his father's unforgivable actions. "I hate him so much. I hate him!"

The boys both heard Jecht's voice rise in volume as he yelled at his wife in the living room, but they couldn't make out what he was saying. Something was thrown and smashed. Then, the front door to the boathouse slammed, and everything became silent.

Shuyin sniffled and looked to Koji. "Quick! Before he comes back!" He crawled from under the bed and pulled Koji out behind him. "Don't tell anyone what you saw, please! Don't tell anyone!" Shuyin opened his bedroom door and looked down the hall toward to see if it was safe. The living room was clear, so his mother must have gone down to the lower-level bedroom. Gesturing for his friend to follow, Shuyin led Koji to the front door, where he repeated the same paranoid behavior to see if the coast was clear outside. "Please, don't tell anyone," he repeated in a tearful whisper. "Nobody knows he gets like this. Nobody would believe us, so, just don't say anything, okay?"

"What about the party?"

"I need to stay with my mom. If he comes back, I might need to get help for her."

Koji was troubled about leaving Shuyin behind in a dangerous situation. "I'll ... see you tomorrow at school, then?"

"Mh. Go!" Shuyin pushed his friend out onto the deck, shut the front door, and ran back to his room. Slamming his own door in anger once again, he climbed onto his bed and curled into his pillows. Cradling his trophy in his hands, he tried not to cry, but the tears rebelled against his attempt to control them.


	3. Chapter 3: Something Good

Chapter 3: Something Good

"Shu? May I come in?" His mother knocked on the door and opened it.

Shuyin rolled onto his side with his back to her.

"I'm … so sorry I couldn't make it to your game. I was waiting for Jecht to come home, so I could talk him into catching the end of it with me, but ..." Dannae touched her bruised cheek. Of course, things had not gone as planned. Sitting down behind him, she rubbed a hand over his shoulder. "How did your game go?"

He whirled on her, half-sitting up, fists clenching his bedspread. "Why do you let him treat you like that?"

"He's ... not himself when he starts drinking, but he always apologizes when he realizes he's made a mistake. He really does love us, Shu. He's just … very stressed. I tried telling him to get help, but ... " Not wanting to discuss the ugly details of the fight, Dannae noticed the small golden cup clutched in her son's hand. "He went to practice on the beach. Things will be better tomorrow." Reaching over his stomach, she drew the trophy into her own hands so she could read the inscription.

"Tidus?" She gave a small laugh. "Why didn't they put your real name on it?"

"Because _he_ calls me that," Shuyin grumped.

His mother sighed. "Well, at least, you turned a bad experience into something good." Drawing her son into her arms, she brushed the damp, spry hair from his temple to give his forehead a kiss. "I'm very proud of you. And I know your father will be, too. But … stay out of his way until after he's had a good sleep. Show this to him tomorrow, and maybe it will convince him to attend more of your games." Standing, she placed the small trophy on top of his dresser. Then, with a sad smile, she left his room, quietly pulling the door shut behind her.

The boy kicked off his shoes and stared at them, exhausted physically and emotionally. How was he ever going to face Koji again? He was probably already telling his whole family what he had seen. Grabbing his duffle bag, Shuyin pulled out his wet uniform, took it to the bathroom, and draped it over the side of the tub to dry.

Jecht didn't come home from practice that day.

For better or worse, Jecht would never come home again.

))((

"But it's been nearly ..."

"It's been nearly a day already."

"Perhaps you could go look for us."

"People are searching for him now."

"Thank you."

Back turned to the people he didn't know, Shuyin tried to ignore the voices on the deck of the houseboat as they spoke with his mother. Jecht had mysteriously disappeared after going to the beach, but blitzball players didn't drown ... not unless they'd been drinking or encountered fiends.

The request for the search party had leaked to the public, and now concerned fans clustered on the pier. Fed up with the parade of sympathy Shuyin felt his father didn't deserve, the boy started to go back inside but was intercepted by his mother, who crouched before him with worry. "Who cares whether he comes back or not?" he grumped.

Dannae's expression reflected her surprise that he would say something like that about his own father. "But he might die."

"Fine, let him!"

"Do you ... Do you hate him so?"

He nodded.

Though he had expressed his anger and fear time and time again where Jecht was concerned, she had not taken the child's feelings seriously, so she had not realized his feelings ran so deep. "But if he dies, you'll never be able to tell him how much you hate him."

Shuyin ran past her to the front door and pulled it open. Then, he ran back to his room and climbed onto his bed, where he pounded a fist into his pillow before throwing it across the room. Their home was peaceful without Jecht's overbearing presence. But when he found his mother by the com sphere that morning, eyes red and swollen from crying all night, he felt guilty for having enjoyed that peace. It just wasn't fair! He could never escape his father, even when he wasn't there.

))((

Several days later, Koji walked up the pier to meet Shuyin and walk to school together as usual, but this was a very unusual morning. It had been aired on the digital com cast that Zanarkand's blitzball hero was missing. "Any word on your dad yet?"

"Nope." Shuyin stopped drawing in the sand, stood, and skipped a stone across the water.

"Are you sure you feel like going to school?"

"I don't have a choice. Mom wants me out of the house. She says it's not good for me to be around her when she cries too much." Shuyin lifted his chin and squinted one eye into the sun as it shone in the bright blue sky over Zanarkand's tallest buildings. "I've been thinking, though. There's nothing I can do about it, you know? I couldn't make him nicer. I couldn't make her leave. I couldn't do anything. So, from now on, I'm only going to think about what I can do. It's a good thing he's gone, right? She's safe, and he can't make fun of me anymore." A smile found its way to Shuyin's lips. "I can have fun now." His blue eyes almost sparkled with new life, despite his humiliation and sadness.

Shuyin didn't smile much when the topic of his dad came up. In fact, Shuyin didn't smile much at all, unless he was into mischief.

Koji considered this, then nodded in agreement. Maybe Jecht's absence was a good thing, after all.

))((

Life went on without Jecht, but it was never quite the same. Dannae needed two jobs to support herself and her young son because her salary wasn't even close to what a professional blitzball player made. As her worries increased, her smiles decreased. But her son seemed more energetic, confident, and happier. The burden of coping with Jecht's drunken behavior and patronization lifted, and for the first time in his life, Shuyin was free to be himself, rather than his father's son … except when it came to his games. Where blitzball was concerned, Zanarkand would always see him as Jecht Jr.

By age eleven, determination to improve his game led to daily practices on the playground at school, in the pool for his school team, and on the beach at home when he should have been doing his homework. During one of those playground practices, Shuyin stood with his foot on the ball and crouched low facing a wall. A semi-circle of boys stood behind him, waiting to see the risky move he bragged about doing. When he was ready, he lifted the ball with the toe of his shoe and volleyed it high with his knee. Giving it a heads-up, he sent it even higher, then sprang after it.

His foot touched the ball, but contact wasn't strong enough to kick it. Arching his back, he completed the flip's rotation and landed on his toes, but fell forward onto his knees. The hit to an already skinned left kneecap made him wince with pain and discouragement, but he ignored the scrape to fetch the ball and returned with it to hoots and laughter from the other boys. "It's harder to do on land than in the pool," he excused his miss. "I can do it in the pool."

"Suuuuure you can. Hey, can you do the Jecht Shot Mach III yet?" one of the boys asked.

"What's the Mach II look like?" another asked, rubbing his hands as if about to receive some insanely important secret.

"The first one is probably the easiest. That's probably why he always did the third one. It's the best," a third boy gave his opinion.

Shuyin frowned. "There is no one or two. He just called it 'three' to hook the crowd."

"Yeah, right." One of the boys waved off the ridiculous notion. "Shots one and two are probably so old that everyone's just forgotten about them."

"Who cares about the Jecht shot. I was trying to do a sphere shot. That's hard, too, you know? Not many people can do that one either."

"I've never seen you do a sphere shot in the pool," Koji told Shuyin, raising the stakes on his claim in front of the other boys.

"Can you do a sphere shot?" one of the boys asked Koji.

"Almost. I just can't get high enough to do a flip. But watch this!" The boy bumped the ball out of Shuyin's hand and flipped backward onto his hands, kicking it clear across the playground. He came out of the handstand the same way that he kicked up into it.

The boys in the circle cheered and congratulated him for the powerful, inverted kick.

Gritting his teeth at his best friend showing him up, Shuyin ran after the ball, which rolled into a circle of girls. "Hey, Kaila! Throw the ball back, will ya?" He could hear whispers and giggles in the circle as he jogged near.

Kaila picked up the ball but held onto it rather than tossing it back. "You didn't say please."

"What? Just throw it back already."

"Maybe I don't want to."

"Because you throw like a _girl_?" he taunted.

Kaila drew the ball back and pitched it at him as hard as she could.

Shuyin snickered at getting the response he wanted while ducking the missile headed for his face, but then ran ahead of it, keeping the ball's position in mind and flipped into a back-handspring. This time his foot made solid contact and sent the ball spinning back toward the boys. It was low and hit the ground, but he was so excited to complete the shot that he didn't care about the quality of the kick or the fact that he landed on his backside in the process. He was satisfied to hear the hoots of admiration from his friends, but he was surprised that the girls were cheering too.

"I did it!" Jumping up from the ground, he wrapped his arms around Kaila and bounced her around in a circle. "Woohoo! I did it! I've been working on that shot my whole life, and I finally did it!"

When he released her, Kaila's slack-jawed shock turned into laughter. Though his height matched hers now, she patted him on the head the way she used to when they were younger. "That was amazing, Shu. I didn't know you could do that."

He swatted her hand away but laughed too. "Stop petting me. Do I look like a dog or something?"

"Well, maybe one of those little mop-dogs with hair that flops over its eyes." She pushed down the front of his bangs.

Her girlfriends giggled. "Hey, you're right. He does kinda look like one of those little poochie-dogs," one of the other girls agreed.

"Can't you picture him with a little bow in his hair?" Another girl pulled his bangs straight up into a twisted, little point.

"No way!" Pushing her hand away, he finger-combed and squashed his bangs back into place.

"Shuyin the Shih Tzu!" a third girl teased.

Giggling again, all of them started patting his head.

Folding his arms over his head, he backed away. "Get off me! I'm not a dog!"

"Seriously, though, that was a really good backflip, Shuyin," the girl that tweaked his bangs offered to make up for her teasing.

"Do you do gymnastics?" another asked.

"No. I just watched my dad do it at his games and practiced on my own."

"You're probably going to play better than your dad someday."

"You blitz for the school team, right?" a girl with bouncy red curls asked.

"Uh, yeah." He scratched the back of his head, wondering where this was going.

"You should try that shot at the next game," Kaila suggested. "Well, except for the part where you fall on your butt."

"No, because if I mess up, everyone will laugh at me, just like you're doing now."

"We're not laughing because you messed up," a girl with long strawberry-blond hair told him. "We're laughing because it was cute."

Shuyin blinked in dismay. _Cute?_ Since when was falling on his butt cute? That's not what the boys would have called it. Then again, he wasn't used to getting this kind of attention from his friends.

"Well, it looks really cool even if you don't score," another girl with short black hair added. "But if you _do_ score, everyone else will be so envious."

He blushed. "Well, maybe if I get a little better at - _atch_!" A blitz ball slammed into the back of his head. "Ow!" With a wince, he rubbed his head, sucked air through his teeth, and turned around to see who had beaned him.

While the girls laughed again, the boys closed the distance between the two groups on the playground. "What are you doing over here talking to them?" Koji, leader of the pack, complained. "You're wasting our lunch break."

Shuyin grinned. "Did you see my sphere shot?"

"Yeah. Not bad. But it wasn't a _real _sphere shot. Your hands were on the ground for the flip."

"I still kicked it."

"It's not a real sphere shot unless you do the whole circle and kick it in the air."

Shuyin picked up the ball and moved outside of the girls' gathering. Giving the ball a toss, he flipped backward to try the shot again. He missed the ball this time but jumped high enough and rotated fast enough to do the dangerous flip without using his hands. His second landing was similar to his first but harder. A sharp pain in his ankle warned that it had taken as much as it could handle for one day, and he fell on his rump again. The ball landed dead on the ground behind him, and since he didn't kick it this time, the boys were unimpressed. They responded with taunts and jokes.

The girls, however, were both impressed and concerned. "Are you okay?" one asked.

"That looked like it hurt." Another tried to help him stand.

It did hurt. It hurt really bad, but Shuyin refused to cry or admit his ankle was throbbing. "Bet I can learn it before you can," he dared Koji.

"You're on." Koji accepted the challenge, though his confidence and humor didn't match Shuyin's.

"So let's see it, then."

Koji picked up the ball and juggled it lightly. He seemed hesitant, but before he could toss it into the air, one of the teachers that had been patrolling the playground snatched the ball.

"Oh, no you don't. We're not having any broken skulls out here. Save it for the pool, or I'm sending all of you to detention." The teacher walked away with the ball, leaving all of them with long faces.

Koji seemed relieved at first, but then he scowled and stomped away, annoyed that Shuyin's trick had resulted in the ball being taken away from what remained of their lunch break.

About a year later, Shuyin won that bet. The year after that, he perfected the shot enough to score with it during practices, so his coach allowed him to use it in games. The first time the shot won a point for the team, the crowd went wild. Their coach beamed with pride. And the other team watched, stunned as they realized their mini-league skills were up against a professional trick shot.

Not only had Koji lost the bet, but he knew there would be no catching up to Jecht's son now.

))((

As Shuyin's blitzball skills improved, his reputation as a player continued to grow. But increasing interest in the sport decreased his interest in academics. And while he struggled to level up in school, his mother struggled to pay their bills.

On her days off, Dannae was often so tired and gloomy all she wanted to do was nap. She no longer had time to attend her son's games, and she no longer had the energy to take him on outings like when his father was around. So, she reluctantly allowed him to go out alone or with Koji. Though disappointed at first, Shuyin developed an early taste for independence. His favorite outings involved sun, surf, and fishing. Beach trips also gave him a chance to try other water sports for a change.

After one such outing, as the sun hovered low on the sea's horizon, and orange streaks filtered through the blue sky, Shuyin returned home, as usual, with his surfboard under one arm and a blitzball and fishing gear tucked under the other. But this time, a couple of girls he and Koji met on the beach tagged along.

"Wow, you live on a boat? That's so cool." Fresia fluffed the pink stripes in her blond-dyed hair and tightened the sarong about her hips before crossing the small ramp from the pier to the houseboat deck. "Why didn't you just take the boat to the beach, so you wouldn't have to walk home?"

"Um, because I'm fourteen?" Shuyin set the surfboard and fishing poles against the wall. "Can't drive yet."

"You mean you have to _drive_ it?"

"Duh." Behind him, Koji carried a large, insulated cooler. His brown hair was rather longish now, curling in slight, thin wisps at the ends and near his eyes. Taller than Shuyin now, he was beginning to show more muscle definition than his childhood friend. "How else is a big boat like this supposed to move around?"

"Well, it has sails, for one thing," Fresia retorted with a pout. "I've never been on a houseboat before. How was I to know it had an engine?"

"The propellers under the ramp are a good clue," Shuyin returned with a smirk.

"Like I would have looked for something like that if I've never been on a boat before." She smacked his back for making fun of her.

"_At-tch_!" He winced at the unexpected sting. "Crap! I forgot to put on sunscreen. How bad is my burn?" Reaching over his shoulder, he gently touched the heat radiating off of his skin.

"You're a nice shade of pink." A second girl with short black hair pressed a finger into his shoulder blade and watched the white imprint turn pink again. "That's really going to hurt tonight. You should have borrowed some lotion from one of us."

"I don't usually burn. I guess I stayed out a little longer than normal this time."

"Where do you want me to put this?" Koji balanced a cooler against his chest and started to open the front door.

"Wait, wait, wait! My mom's probably home from work. Let me have one of them." Shuyin reached into the cooler and pulled out a large fish that almost wriggled loose in protest. Finger to his lips, he opened the door and peered inside. He could hear water running, so he moved stealthily through the living room, following the sound around the bar and into the kitchen.

Dannae was rinsing a pitcher at the sink. Creeping close, Shuyin waited until after she dried the pitcher and turned around.

"_Tidaaa_!" He thrust the large fish in front of her.

His mother jumped with a shout and dropped the pitcher.

Shuyin laughed at having successfully startled her. "I caught something for dinner!" Grinning, he displayed the fish again to show it off. "Grilled fish steak sound good?"

His mother laughed at her own fright but raised a hand between herself and his catch. "That's wonderful, Shu, but did you have to shove that smelly thing in my face?" She bent to pick up the pitcher.

He chuckled and placed the fish back in the cooler that Koji brought to his side. "We caught three, and that's the _small_ one."

"Three? They'll spoil before we can eat that many."

"Not if we invite friends over to help."

Dannae knew by his expression and tone that meant his friends were already here. "Oh?" She glanced at Koji and looked past him, probably expecting to see Kaila and her girlfriends.

Instead, two unfamiliar teenage girls in small bikinis stood in the doorway.

"Oh." Dannae blinked at her son and then blinked at the girls again. "Oh my."


	4. Chapter 4: Sense of Adventure

Chapter 4: Sense of Adventure

"Can they stay?" Shuyin eagerly asked.

"Well, I suppose so." Dannae smiled at the girls her son invited to dinner, but then drew near to him and lowered her voice to a discreet whisper. "Aren't they a little … _old_ … for you?"

He drew back, amused at her incorrect assumption, but remained discreet. "Mom, they're in my classes at school." He shook his head at her doubt and decided to introduce them. "This is Fresia and Gin. We ran into them at the beach, and since we had extra fish, I thought they might like to help us eat them."

"Gin?" His mother's brows rose with concern. "As in the drink?"

The girl with the wispy, black hair and bold green eyes laughed. "It's short for Giniva."

Shuyin took the cooler from Koji and set it beside the fridge. "Go ahead and set up the grill," he told his friend. "Do you remember where it is?"

"Top deck, right? In that footlocker?"

"That's it. I'll bring out the fish in a minute." Shuyin pulled a large knife from the drawer and tapped the handle on the counter. He was ready to play master chef. His mother, however, clamped a hand on top of his head. He was taller than her now, but he obediently froze in place and waited with a sense of dread as she examined his ear.

"Is that an earring?"

"Kind of."

"When did you get an earring?"

"Koji and I got our ears pierced down at the boardwalk today. There's a new jewelry store near the painted T-shirts and ..."

Dannae's attention shifted to Koji, who casually tugged at an ear as if trying to hide it. "This was your idea?" she asked the other boy.

"Ah, no," Koji cautiously answered. "He wanted to get his tongue pierced, but I told him it would probably be better to start with an ear."

Shuyin frantically gestured for Koji to shut up, but immediately straightened as his mother turned back around to face him with a frown.

"What? How did you manage to get permanent body modifications done without parental consent?"

"They didn't ask our ages."

"But if they couldn't be bothered to check your ages, there's no telling what else they neglected. What if their equipment wasn't sanitary. Those ears could get infected. And on top of that, you're red as lobsters from being out all day with no sunscreen. What were you thinking today?" Dannae rinsed a dishcloth at the sink, then spread it over some food containers in the freezer.

Shuyin winced. His mother had an effective but unusual method of treating sunburns. "They don't hurt that much."

"Oh, well, thank goodness for that, or you wouldn't be able to go back for the tattoos." Dannae shut the freezer door and folded her arms.

Koji snorted and laughed at the unexpected sarcasm, but then cleared his throat as her attention shifted toward him again. "Yeah, I'll be, um ... looking for the grill." He flashed Shuyin a peace sign before slipping out of the kitchen.

Shuyin remained upbeat despite the mild scolding and stepped around his mother to pull a fish from the cooler. "I promise I'll take the earring out if my ear gets infected, but right now, it feels fine. Once we have the grill set up, you're in for a real treat because Koji and I are taking care of dinner tonight," he proudly announced. "You could even lie down and take a nap while you wait, or watch a movie or something."

"That grill is probably rusted. We haven't used it in ages."

"Then we'll clean it off and place the fish on the skewers rack. Are you afraid to eat my cooking?" he asked with a teasing, sly expression.

"I'm more afraid of you setting the boat on fire when you light that grill."

Shuyin shrugged, undaunted. "We're on water. Where's your sense of adventure, Mom?"

Sighing with resignation, Dannae stepped aside to let her son prepare his fish but decided to remain present in case damage control was needed. "You _are _an adventure, Shu - one right after another."

He set the large, flopping fish on the counter. But as he held it down to keep it from escaping, he couldn't remember whether he was supposed to cut it or scale it first. He was used to catching fish, not cooking them. His two female dinner guests came to his side.

"Aren't you supposed to kill it first?" Fresia asked.

"Do you need help?" Gin asked.

"I can handle it," he insisted as he contemplated how to outwit the slippery animal.

While he was preoccupied, his mother opened the freezer to retrieve the wet dishcloth, which had tiny ice crystals on it now.

Shuyin decided he should probably start with scaling and tried to lift the fish's tail at an angle to the knife. Before he could begin, however, an ice-cold sensation hit his back and chills exploded over the rest of his body. His mother then pressed the frozen dishcloth between his shoulder blades to draw the heat from his sunburn. Sucking air through his teeth, Shuyin dropped the knife and grasped the counter. The fish flopped onto the floor. "Shit!" He slapped a hand over his mouth as soon as he said it, hoping his mother didn't hear, but she was already frowning at his language. With no way to take it back, he banged a fist multiple little times on the counter to prevent himself from cursing further.

The two girls at his side almost fell over themselves, laughing at his reaction to the sunburn therapy.

Finally, burying his forehead into his arms on the counter, all he could do was groan in complaint until the chills faded.

Dannae removed the dishcloth after it had absorbed a good amount of heat from the burn and placed it back in the freezer to get ready for round two. "That's what you get for not using sunscreen." Then, she looked at the girls. "Jecht's best friend introduced us to this sunburn treatment. Works like a charm. As it removes the heat, it removes the pain and prevents blistering and peeling."

Shuyin exhaled with profound relief that it was over, but knew he would have to think up an excuse quickly if he was going to avoid a second application. "Yeah, a-ha-ha, very funny," he retorted to the girls who were still giggling at him. Picking up the fish, he rinsed it off before placing it back on the counter to try again. "Let's drop an iced rag over your backs and see how you like it." The fish was beginning to lose some of its vigor now, at least, so he positioned the chef's knife over its head to end its misery before another attempt to scale it.

))((

Dannae couldn't help but chuckle to herself at her son's ability to recover his dignity. So much like his father. She dare not tell him that, though. To Shuyin, Jecht was a forbidden topic ever since his disappearance. Dannae stepped away from the freezer to give the rag time to chill again but paused feeling strange and cold. Her vision began to darken, and she knew she was about to faint. "Shu?"

Looking over his shoulder in time to see her swoon, he dropped the knife and fish a second time, but was quick enough to catch her and ease her down to the floor. "Are you okay?"

Fresia and Gin moved to stand behind Shuyin, concerned for the woman they'd just met.

"Should we call a white mage or a summoner?" Fresia suggested.

"No … thank you. I'm fine," Dannae answered, though her senses felt distant.

"Are you sure?" Shuyin asked, worried.

"I'm just a little light-headed. I must have moved too fast." She stared up at him for a moment. From that angle, he looked so grown up now. After he helped her to stand once more, she moved toward the counter. "I'd better show you how to prepare that fish if we intend to have any of it for dinner, hm?" Smiling, she patted his hand and was grateful he had been there for her.

))((

When the first fish was prepared for grilling, Shuyin and the girls took it back outside. Koji was just about finished scraping the rust out of the bottom of the grill. The girls sat down in the lounge chairs on the deck and began to chat with each other, and Shuyin set aside the fish to grab the charcoals and lighter fluid.

"Too bad one of us doesn't know a fire spell, eh?" Koji commented as he reached for the skewer rack.

"Or a cure spell." Shuyin poured some of the charcoal into the grill and set the bag aside.

Koji met his friend's somber comment with a questioning expression as he set the skewers in place.

"My mom fainted just now," Shuyin answered under his breath. "I'm afraid something's wrong with her, but she refuses to go for an exam. That's the second time this month."

"Maybe she's just tired. You said she was tired a lot lately."

"I guess so."

Changing to a more positive subject, Koji lowered his voice to a whisper and scratched a mosquito bite on his bronzed shoulder. "Hey, do you think we should walk the girls home after this?"

"Probably. I mean we did invite them over, and it'll be dark by the time we're done eating. We should at least take them as far as the beach."

Koji grinned and elbowed his buddy. "Think they'll kiss us goodnight for the favor?"

Shuyin was equally amused at the thought. "Want me to ask?" He turned around. "Hey, Gin!"

Koji caught him in a head-lock and cupped a hand over his mouth before he could say or do anything embarrassing, but he laughed as he released him.

Snickering at how easy it was to call Koji's bluff, Shuyin doused the coals with lighter fluid.

Gin, however, had heard her name and came to his side in response. "Need help?"

Sweeping the hair from his eyes, Shuyin chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, it's … nothing. I was just … wondering what kind of music you like. I could bring some music spheres out on the deck." He soaked the coals in lighter fluid.

"What have you got?" Fresia asked, joining them.

"I'll warn you. I like music most people have never heard of," Gin answered.

"Well, my collection's in my room if you want to browse." Giving the lighter fluid one more generous squeeze, Shuyin set the can aside, wiped his hands on the nearby towel Koji had been using, and headed for the cabin door again.

Both girls started to follow, but Gin grabbed Fresia's arm and whispered something in her ear. The girls giggled between themselves, and then Gin met him at the door. "I hope you don't get in trouble about the earring. I think it looks nice."

Shuyin waved it off with no big concern. "My mom doesn't get too bent out of shape over stuff like this as long as it's not too bad." He led the way down to the lower deck and back through the living room to his bedroom. "Some days I hardly see her at all because she works late hours, so she trusts me for the most part. I didn't think about trying to sue the pants off of the jewelry store if they damaged my ear. Guess it's a good thing I didn't do my tongue, huh?" On the wall beside his dresser was a rack full of music spheres. "Just look through these and let me know if you see anything you like." He reached for a couple of sample songs to play.

"Oh, I definitely see something I like."

He paused with doubt. "You haven't even listened to them yet."

Gin gave him a coy smile. "Shuyin, do you have a girlfriend?"

Stunned, it took him a few seconds to clear his throat and shrug with casual indifference. "Not at the moment."

"Have you ever kissed a girl before?"

"Once ... yeah." There was no way he was going to admit it was just a peck on the cheek from Kaila when he was four. But since Gin was asking, Shuyin wondered if now would be a good time to upgrade that experience.

Looking into his eyes, she smiled ... waiting.

Trying not to be awkward, Shuyin stepped closer and experimentally tilted his head to avoid bumping noses. Then, closing his eyes, he pressed forward until he bumped into her lips. His heart raced at the softness and warmth of the intimate contact, and he opened his mouth slightly to make it an official "date" style kiss rather than a friendly peck. When he drew back and opened his eyes, Gin was smiling back at him, pleased. _Yes!_ He had done it right first try! He felt like running up to the deck to tell Koji, so his friend could share his excitement with him. No, on second thought, he felt like doing it again. So, he did.

"Shu? Did you go back outside or are you in here?" His mother called from the hall as she came to his room.

Shuyin and Gin immediately jumped apart and tried to look natural … which ended up looking very scripted. His face flushed with an expression that usually betrayed him when he was trying to hide something, so his mother stared at him with confused suspicion. Then she looked to Gin and was quietly mortified for a couple of seconds.

"The second fish is ready for the grill," Dannae informed them. "I left a few thin slices for snacking if you want."

"Okay," he answered, a little too quickly, passing the music spheres to Gin. "Just, um … take whatever you like," he told her with a playful grin.

"Excuse us," Dannae told Gin, snagging her son's arm. "He'll be back outside with the fish in a few minutes," she added before escorting him to the kitchen.

"Ow, ow, ow-ch! Mom! The sunburn?" he complained.

"Well, by all means, Shu, let's cool you down again." Dannae didn't release him until they were in front of the freezer. "_What_ were you doing just now?"

"Nothing," his voice cracked. Then he watched with dread as his mother retrieved and opened the frozen-stiff dishcloth again.

"Don't lie to me."

"Okay, I kissed her. But that's it. I swear."

She turned him around and pressed the frozen compress against his back and shoulders. "Oh, _where_ is your father when I need him?" she lamented, putting a hand to her forehead as her son winced, clenched his teeth, and shuddered under the chills of her sunburn therapy. "I'm not ready for this. This is too much adventure for one day, Shuyin."

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"No? Your lips accidentally fell on her?"

"I mean, I didn't invite her over because of that. I thought she liked me as a friend, but I guess she _likes me_ likes me. She asked if I had a girlfriend, and it just sort of … happened."

"Well, nothing else had better happen!" She turned him back around to face her and pressed the heat-absorbing cloth against his chest and front of his shoulders. "New house rule. That door stays open if you're going to start inviting girls over. Understood?"

He made a disgruntled face. "Understood."

Shaking her head in dismay, she placed the 'melted' cloth back in the freezer for round three and planted the tray of sliced fish in his hands. "Take these to the grill. We'll talk later."

"You don't mean … _talk_, do you? Dad had that talk with me when I was seven."

"Well, maybe you should have it again now that you're fourteen."

"But that's a _Dad_ talk; not a Mom talk."

"Well, I can't give you a father-son talk, so a mother-son talk will have to do. Unless you'd rather I give you the mother-daughter talk?"

It was Shuyin's turn to be mortified.

"Just … go cook your fish before I decide to cook _you_." Flustered, his mother turned him around again to send him back outside before he could argue.

He winced at the sting on his shoulders, but he had to admit his back already felt better thanks to the frozen cloth therapy. Passing through the living room, he grumbled to himself about not wanting _any_ kind of girl discussions with his mother, but then he remembered the thrill of his first kiss. Shuyin allowed himself a congratulatory smirk. "Oh yeah. That was so worth it."

Gin was waiting for him when he returned to the deck. "You got in trouble again, didn't you?" She grimaced in apology.

He flashed her a guilty grin before approaching the grill and pinching the fish slices onto the skewers. "I can handle it."

Gin returned the smile, activated one of the music spheres she'd brought back from his room, and pulled Fresia aside to speak privately.

Koji came to Shuyin's side, picked up one of the slices, and threaded it onto a skewer. "I told Fresia we'd walk them home after dinner, and she seemed to like that idea."

"Good, good." Shuyin pilfered one of the raw fish slices and dropped it into his mouth before glancing over his shoulder, certain that Gin was already telling Fresia what happened. The velvety, thin meat melted on his tongue as he chewed and exhaled with a dramatic sigh before turning back to the task at hand. "Well, if we walk them back to the beach, maybe Gin will let me kiss her _again_ before we say goodnight."

Koji drew back, surprised, but skeptical. "No, you didn't."

Grinning with pride, Shuyin grabbed the box of long match sticks. "Twice." He danced his little victory dance - the one he'd done since they were kids.

Koji was speechless for a few seconds but tried not to appear too disappointed. "So, Gin, huh? How was it?"

"Freakin' awesome. It was like ..." Shuyin shook his head and tried to think of just the right words to describe it as he struck the match on the side of the box and cast it into grill but flames_ whoofed _up into their faces the instant the match touched the well-oiled briquettes. Both boys shielded their faces from the burst of heat, and Shuyin almost fell over a chair, trying to back away.

"How much lighter fluid did you put in there!" Koji fussed.

Shuyin grabbed a nearby water bottle and squirted some of it into the flames. "I got distracted, alright!" The water only made it snap and pop more.

Koji grabbed the lid and dropped it over the flames. The boys coughed and tried to wave away the smoke that billowed into their eyes.

Behind them, when it was safe, Gin and Fresia burst into laughter.

Shuyin checked under the lid to see if the flames were smothered and got a face-full of smoke for his effort, but at least the grill was no longer exploding.

Koji removed the lid and sighed with relief, but then promptly smacked the back of Shuyin's head. "Dumb ass." With a cough, he grabbed the water bottle from Shuyin and took a drink. Shuyin snickered at the reprimand. The snicker easily turned into a laugh. And then, Shuyin's laughter was contagious enough that Koji laughed too. "Why don't you just pour a whole can of kerosine on it next time? We could even throw in a few fireworks. Exploding Fish Kabobs!"

The girls laughed and waved away the smoke as they approached the grill. Gin took Shuyin's hands in hers. "Maybe asking your mom to cook the fish wasn't such a bad idea?"

Shuyin's chuckles calmed as he rubbed the smoke from his eyes. "Are you kidding? She'd probably throw the fish in the freezer and then slap it between my shoulders instead of throwing it on the grill."

Gin giggled and then pouted sympathetically as she leaned forward to steal another kiss.

"Oh, please. Take it somewhere else." Koji squirted some of the bottled water into Shuyin's face.

"Hey!" Shuyin snatched the bottle and squirted water back at him.

Koji dodged, so Shuyin leaped after him. Laughing and running across the deck, Koji escaped retaliation until Shuyin cornered him and opened the lid, emptying the entire bottle over his head.

))((

The romance with Gin lasted only four weeks, but it was enough for Shuyin to discover a new vice and develop a new talent—the art of flirtation.

He was thankful his mother forgot about her threat concerning their talk. Dannae was thankful her son gave up on getting his tongue pierced. Raising a teenage boy without his father was hard, and not a day passed that she didn't wish Jecht was there for him ... for her.

Shuyin grew stronger. But Dannae grew weaker until eventually, it became evident to everyone that her health was declining.


	5. Chapter 5: Names and Dates

Chapter 5: Names and Dates

Dots ran across the screen of Shuyin's digital notebook, repeating without an end in sight until a sharp poke in the ribs prompted him to lift his face from the keypad. As he realized he had fallen asleep, the class giggled, and his history teacher stared at him with waning patience.

"Answer the question, please, Shuyin," the teacher unhappily repeated, quite sure his errant student had not heard him the first time.

"Uh ... " Shuyin looked across the narrow aisle between his seat and Koji's for a clue on what the answer—or at least the question—might be.

Koji rested his elbow on his desk and nonchalantly covered his mouth with his hand. "High Summoner Yu Yevon," he whispered.

Shuyin sat up straighter, though he felt rather spongy. "High Summoner Yu Yevon," he repeated. His voice had deepened by age sixteen, but concentration on his lessons had not.

The entire class fell to laughter.

"And how did _she_ do it?" The teacher calmly pressed him to explain.

"_She_?" Shuyin frowned at Koji and reached across the aisle to pound a fist into his shoulder for purposefully feeding him the wrong answer. "What are you doing to me?"

Koji laughed with the rest of the class. "Nothing, man. You're the one that fell asleep."

The teacher repeated. "How did she do it, Shuyin?"

The class waited with bated breath to see what comedy the star athlete would produce next. On the spot, but at ease in the spotlight, Shuyin decided to deliver. "Well, she ... did it like this." Putting his pencil on his nose, he balanced it perfectly. His classmates appreciated his humor, but his teacher was not amused.

"Koji, since you apparently have all the answers, would you please tell us the _correct_ answer for who first introduced alien life forms to the colony ship?" the teacher asked over ripples of laughter.

The brunette blitzball player was still chuckling at how easy it had been to dupe his friend. "Captain Spira of the Founders from Earth."

"And could you please give us the _correct_ answer explaining how she did it?"

"The ship's life support systems were failing when a guado named Mara answered her distress call and summoned the Farplane into the ship. Once the Farplane stabilized the life support systems, she went in search of life forms that would contribute to and survive better in the contained environment." Koji gave Shuyin a sly expression, enjoying being able to show him up for once.

Shuyin frowned at him again for feeding him a false answer.

Seated directly in front of Shuyin, Kaila raised her hand. "It's Maedra, though, isn't it?"

"Yes, Kaila," the teacher agreed. "Maedra is considered to be the father of the guado on this colony, but we'll learn more about them later. He's an interesting mystery."

Kaila looked over her shoulder and quirked a brow at Shuyin. "I don't know. Summoning the Farplane on a colony ship pales in comparison to High Summoner Yu Yevon balancing a pencil on his nose."

Shuyin hooked his feet in the basket under her chair and pushed down, pulling her seat back, so the front legs rose off the ground.

"Shuyin! Don't you dare tip me over again!" Remembering he was wearing shorts that day, she reached behind her and pinched a small amount of golden hair on his leg to make him release her chair.

"Ow-_ch_!" He released Kaila's desk in an instant and swiveled in his seat to evade her grabby hands, but gave her head a shove before scratching the stinging spot on his leg.

Of course, this battle was as entertaining to the other students as the pencil on the nose trick, but it was interrupted when the chimes toned for classes to change.

Shuyin thought he had been saved from further hassle, but as Kaila left her seat, she attempted to smack his head in return for shoving hers. He ducked, so she mashed his face into his keypad and walked away laughing, happy to have the final word.

"Pick up your tests on the way out," the history teacher told the departing students as he set a stack of papers on the corner desk near the door. Then, he came back to his 'problem child' and sat on the desktop across from him. "That's the third time you've fallen asleep in class this semester."

Shuyin's eyes watered from the bump his nose had taken against the keypad when Kaila pushed his head down. "I know, I know. But this is the class that I have after lunch, and I have to walk all the way here from—"

"Anything that pours out of your mouth from this point forward will be nothing more than an excuse. Whatever went on before you got here, when this class starts, you are responsible for paying attention. There's no nice way to say this, Shuyin." He passed his student a print-out of his last test. "You're failing history."

He grimaced at the large, red grade scrawled across the top of his test. "It's because I'm just no good at remembering names and dates. Besides, when am I ever going to need this stuff? I'm going to be a professional blitzball player when I'm out of here."

"Right. Well, this is where I have to remind myself to watch my language with my reluctant learners, even when they deserve a good verbal thrashing because they think they're invincible. You may _want_ to play pro when you get out of here, but there are no guarantees in life. You don't know what life is going to throw at you along the way. Nobody knows their future. So maybe—just maybe—you're going to need to know _other_ things too. You can't ride your father's coattails forever, you know."

"I'm not riding anyone's coattails," Shuyin defended. "My old man walked out on me and my mom when I was seven. What I accomplished in blitzball, I accomplished on my own without help from him or anyone else."

"My point is the more knowledge you have to face this world's challenges, the better off you'll be. It's better to have a variety of knowledge and skills in case you need it than to get caught with your pants down around your ankles and not know what to do. I see a lot of potential in you, but I also see poor study skills. So, I've set up a tutor to help you get back on track."

"What? I don't need a tutor. I'll stay awake in class, already. Even if I have to chew my own leg off to do it." Indignant, Shuyin finished packing his bag and shifted it to his shoulder.

"You will be studying with my student assistant _and_ staying awake in class. And I've reported your grades to the dean, your coach, and your other teachers. There's no getting out of it, Sport. You're to meet with Birana at least three times a week until your grades show stable improvement." The teacher gestured to the door where a bleach-blond girl in a pink mini-dress stood talking to Koji.

Shuyin's brows rose in surprise. "Birana?"

"Birana has the highest grade point average for this class, so she's the logical choice to tutor you. I'll be checking in with her once a week to make sure you _are_ actually _studying._" He looked at Shuyin over the top of his glasses, a subtle warning. "But if your grades don't improve with Birana, so help me, I'll slap you with the ugliest, geekiest boy I can find from the debate team instead." The history teacher gave him a quirked brow, then patted Shuyin on the back and nodded to Birana and Koji as he left the room.

Shuyin closed his digital notebook and tucked his failed test into his history class folder. Okay, for a tutor, she was extremely pretty. But she was still a tutor. Tucking both items under his arm, he left his desk to join Koji and Birana in the doorway of the classroom. "Before you say anything," he told her, "I just want you to know I'm not stupid, all right?"

Birana was surprised by his confrontational greeting but smiled instead of taking it personally. "I didn't say you were. You're on the blitzball team, right? I didn't realize you're the one I'd be tutoring. I thought your name was Tidus?"

"Shuyin's my real name, and I tend to prefer it, especially when I'm not in the sphere pool." Wary about this deal, he wanted to make sure he remained in control of his situation. "I'm only doing this tutorial thing because I have to, not because I have any choice in the matter."

"That's usually the case."

"If I fail history, I won't be allowed to play blitzball anymore."

"That's probably true, too."

"And just so you know, I may be slow to get some things, but once I know them, I know them for good. So, don't get all intellectual on me or anything. Just work with me at my own pace."

"That means you might have to use colorful pictures and do pole dances to make sure he stays awake," Koji inserted with a smirk.

Shuyin frowned at his friend's sarcasm. "Do I have a 'kick me' sign on my ass today?"

"It was a joke, Shu. Geeze, lighten up." Koji shook his head and shifted the weight of his shoulder pack.

Birana gave Shuyin a reassuring smile despite his defensiveness. "However you want to do this is fine with me. I'm just here to keep your mind from wandering when you study, okay?"

Shuyin sighed in defeat. "You are _so_ not going to keep my mind from wandering."

She tried not to smile at the compliment beneath his discouragement. "Well, at least you're honest. How about we meet at the library after school?"

"Nah, I got blitz practice after school."

"Okay, after blitzball practice?"

He shrugged without enthusiasm. "Sure."

"Great. See you there." She smiled at both him and Koji before slipping past them into the classroom and heading to the teacher's desk.

Koji shook his head in dismay. "Unbelievable. You're failing history, but what punishment do you get? One of the hottest girls on campus for a tutor. And she didn't know my name or that I was even on the blitzball team, but she recognized you right away. That means she's been watching you. Do you have the luck of the gods or just some genie that grants all your wishes?"

Shuyin tilted his head, appreciating the sway of Birana's hips as she moved about her business at the front of the classroom, setting up her workspace as the teacher's assistant. But then he groaned and made himself turn away. "This is bad. Very bad," he grumbled and walked down the hall with his friend. "I am _not_ going to be able to keep my mind on history if I'm sitting next to a girl like that three times a week!" He stormed away, pissed at his good fortune.

))((

Birana waved to Shuyin as he entered the Zanarkand library and walked past the clear-paneled, digital indexes at the end of each row of spheres and books to the table where she waited. "You made it. How was practice?"

"I'm still a bit water-logged, but I'm here." Sitting down across from her, he slouched with disinterest. "Look, there's no sense dragging this out like it's some kind of adventure. Just tell me which hoops to jump through to get my grades good enough to stay in the game."

"Okay then, I guess the first thing we need to do is make sure you're understanding what you read. If you're misunderstanding content, everything else will be wrong. Have you started the chapter summary assigned today?"

"I haven't finished it yet." He opened his digital notebook, and the clear cover darkened into a black screen, complete with digital "stickers." After a brief search for the file, he turned it toward her, and she leaned forward to read. Self-conscious while waiting, he began tapping his fingers on the table, and his knee began to jiggle under it. While she was occupied with his homework, he studied her hair, her eyes, the shape of her mouth, and the curve of her neck. He could even smell her perfume, which was light and breezy as a summer day. Should he ask her out? No, he was here to study. But why shouldn't he ask her out? Because that wouldn't be studying. Maybe it could be a study date? "Yeah, right," he snorted to himself. Like he would actually study on a date.

"Hm?" She looked up from the notebook screen.

Shaking his head, Shuyin waved away his comment and slouched a little more in his misery. "Nothing."

Her attention returned to his writing, but after a few seconds, she smiled, amused at something.

His fingers stopped tapping the table. "Is it that bad?"

"Well, your sentences are a little ... funny."

"Funny?"

"It's the way you've worded things." She turned the screen toward him and proceeded to point out each correction he needed to make, but half-way through each explanation, he needed another explanation of what she was explaining.

Terms began to overlap, and confusion set in until Shuyin finally clutched his head in frustration. "Ahhhhh! I don't get this!"

A passing librarian frowned severely at him for the outburst and pressed a finger to her lips.

Dropping his elbows to the table, he leaned forward and hissed with a loud whisper instead of talking normally in a low voice. "Just tell me what I need to change, okay?"

"I'm here to help you think, not give you easy answers," she whispered, mirroring his position across the table. "You have lots of details in this report, but you haven't pulled them together to make chronological sense. That's probably the main reason you're failing. You're getting bogged down in the details and missing the main point. Concentrate on getting the big picture first. _Then_ learn the names and dates. Who and when doesn't matter as much as cause and effect when it comes to history. If we can't learn from the consequences of past actions, we are doomed to repeat them."

He sighed with disgust at how together she seemed about it, considering it felt like one big, boring blur to him. But what she said made better sense than anything he'd heard sitting in class. "I guess that means I'm going to need a lot of help before my grades go up."

She laughed lightly at his defeated expression. "Yeah, probably."

He pursed his lips in contemplation then switched to a suave tone. "Does that mean you'd be willing to spend extra hours with me?"

A slow smile of suspicion crossed her lips. "Are you asking me as a tutor or a date?"

He paused, annoyed that his attempt to flirt had been dissected. "Which one will you answer 'yes' to?"

Birana was amused. "The tutor."

His expression fell. "Oh."

"But, if you bring your grades up, I might consider the date."

"Is that how you reward everyone you tutor?" he playfully asked.

"Only the adorable ones." She laughed with mild embarrassment and shook her head. "I can't believe I just said that. We're supposed to be discussing history."

He chuckled with a cheesy grin. "If I'm so adorable, how come I have to _earn_ a date with you?"

"Adorable guys are everywhere. I'm only interested in the ones with brains."

"That's so cold."

She laughed and pointed to his electronic notebook. "History, Shuyin."

"Okay, already!" With a sigh, he sat up and set his elbows on the table to take another look at his work. "Told you my mind would wander."

"In your own words, tell me how life came to exist on Spira." She tried to refocus his attention.

He scratched his head. "Some guado that started with an 'M' ... Mara, Mela, Melonhead ..."

"You're not being very serious about this," she complained, trying not to laugh. "Try again. No details, just the main idea."

"Some stupid guado, _who shall remain nameless_, summoned the Farplane ... so that things on the ship wouldn't die. And then they looked for more life on other worlds."

Birana smiled. "Why?"

He made a face as if the answer was obvious, but he remained unsure whether he was correct. "So ... it wouldn't fail again?"

"Gold star. Rewrite that as your main idea, and _then_ worry about the details that back it up. Okay?" She moved to his side of the table to sit beside him.

He returned her smile. Touching the delete key, he tried to think of a better way to restart his report.

))((

A few weeks later, after blitzball practice, Shuyin and Koji were walking down the hall toward the locker rooms when Koji grinned at Shuyin in a manner that was curious at best. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I heard that the Abes are opening a part-time slot for a junior member this summer. I'm thinking about going up for it."

Shuyin quirked a brow. "You're a little young for the pros, aren't you? We've still got one year of school left."

"Yeah, but playing in the pros is all I ever wanted, you know? If I'm good enough for the big league now, why wait? And if I'm not, at least I'll know so I can train extra hours next year and try again after graduation."

"Shuyin!" Birana called from the other end of the hall and waved. "Are we still on for today?"

"Yeah! I just have to change first!" he called back, lifting the hem of his wet shirt to indicate the obvious reason for his delay.

"Oi, still studying with Bi-ra-na-na, na?" Koji teased. "I found out some things about her, you know. In some circles, they call her Birana the Piranha because she's a real man-eater."

"Is that supposed to entice me or scare me?"

"Play the game her way, or she'll chew you up and spit you out. And with good reason. Her dad _owns_ the Duggles … but I'm sure you already knew that. Playing her for a spot on her dad's team when you graduate by any chance?"

Shuyin chuckled and pushed open the door to the locker room. "No, I didn't know that. So, no, I'm not playing her for any position with her father."

"Ah, I see. Then you're dating her to make the Abes sweat about possibly losing Jecht Jr., so they'll be more open to negotiations, eh?"

Shuyin stopped and faced him. "I'm not dating her. I told you that. She refuses to go out with me unless I can get above a ninety on my history test. She says I'm a kinetic—no—_kinesthetic_ learner? Something like that. It means I learn better when I can move my body and use my hands to do stuff. She says that's the reason I'm better with things like blitzball compared to things like history. So, she told me to study names and dates while handling a ball or something—so my sense of touch could help me remember." He was amused that she had logical explanations for everything he made excuses for over the years. "Anyway, she's ... kinda nice, actually. Not snobbish like I thought she'd be, considering she's so smart."

"And it doesn't hurt that she's babe-a-licious, right?" Koji grinned and wriggled his brows as he pulled the elastic band from his tied-back hair, letting the wet strands fall to his shoulders.

Shuyin shrugged and laughed as he headed to his locker and spun the combination lock to open it. "Well, there's that, too. I don't have a ninety yet, but I'm only five points shy, so I was thinking of asking her to the spring dance when I meet her today at the library. Maybe she'll make an exception about the actual score since this is a special one-time thing."

Koji peeled out of his damp, red shirt and side-tracked to a sink to wring it out, but frowned slightly. "Uh-oh."

Shuyin reached for the towel in his locker. "What uh-oh?"

"Well, don't tell her I told you." Koji flipped the damp shirt over his shoulder and returned to Shuyin's side. "But Kaila was going to ask you to the dance. She didn't want to go dateless, so I kinda threw your name into the hat for her."

"What? Thanks for nothing, man."

"I felt bad for her, okay? But there's no way I'm going to the dance with my sister, so it has to be you." Koji faced his own locker and worked the combination before pulling it open.

"It can't be me. I was going to ask Birana. Besides, it'd be too weird. Dancing with Kaila would be like … dancing with a female version of you." Shuyin shrugged with a shudder.

"Dude, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Koji flatly responded. "Look, it's like you said—a one-time thing. You can always ask Birana out later, right? You've got her wrapped around your finger just like every other girl in this school … unless she happens to find someone else before you manage to get that ninety." He grabbed a towel and his shower supplies.

Shuyin flipped his towel over his shoulder and reached for his shower supplies too. "I'll manage. Oh, and I'm thinking of taking a surprise with me to the dance, too. I'll let you in on it later." He gave his buddy a light wink of mischief. Then, he started to head for the shower stalls when their team coach intercepted him.

"How's the tutoring going?" the stern man questioned as he folded his clipboard to his chest.

"Seventy-five to eighty-five so far," Shuyin confidently reported.

"Good. Because I just got word from your language arts teacher that your grade average has dipped below the line in that class, as well. It kills me to have to say this, but ... I'm going to have to bench you until you can get your overall grade average back up to eighty percent."

Shuyin was stunned for a minute, then laughed, thinking it was a joke. "You can't bench me now. We're heading into finals."

"You're one of our better players, son, but I've already got a few teachers and the dean on my backside about your grades needing more attention than your game."

"So, I need a tutor in language arts, too?"

"No, you just need to stop acting like the class clown." The coach frowned. "I've had reports that you sleep during lectures, turn in projects late, and are completely irreverent during discussions. I don't know what's going on in your head when you pull that kind of nonsense, but you'd better get some action on those studies, or there won't be any action in the pool."

"But, my grades are improving."

"In history, maybe, but not in language arts."

Shuyin thought about what Birana had told him regarding how he learns. "But … those aren't physical subjects. I'm doing the best I can. You have to let me play, Coach. I was born to blitz. It's the only thing I do well."

"You know, your father was the best player the sport ever knew."

Shuyin snorted in disgust and shook his head. "This again. Yeah, he was his number one fan."

"There is no guarantee you're going to play professional blitz when you get out of here just because your father did."

"Did you rip this out of my history teacher's book of lectures? I'm not trying to be like my dad. And I'm sick of everyone thinking that!" Shuyin's volume unintentionally rose. "I'm trying to be me. Maybe I want to play blitzball because I just happen to like it and happen to be good at it. Maybe it has nothing to do with him!"

"You are one step away from being sent packing, Mister. I'd watch your tone if I were you. Eighty percent or better in _all_ subjects, or you're off the team. In the meantime, Koji, you're to take his pool position." The coach lifted his clipboard and penned a note onto its electronic surface. Then, he touched the scroll through a few filed notes to make another.

"_What?_" Shuyin was incredulous.

Koji drew closer to be sure he heard right. "_I'm_ up for right forward? But he's a stronger shooter than I am. I can't do his power shots."

"Maybe not, but counting average scores from ordinary shots at practice, you're the most consistent shooter on our team, Koji. Plus, you've got a real love of the game. Don't sell yourself short just because he has a legendary father. With that kind of heritage, he plays to impress people."

"I play to win," Shuyin countered.

"For your team, or for _yourself_?" the coach challenged his star player. "Did I also mention that Koji's got better grades?"

Shuyin cut Koji a sharp frown, but Koji only shrugged, unable to apologize for having better study habits.

"Until I see improvements in grades, this is the final roster call. Shuyin is on the bench, Koji takes right forward. Ekina comes off the bench to take the right defense, and Nan moves up to center."

"Center?" Nan overheard the coach's conversation. "All right! You just made my day, Jecht Jr." He gripped the back of Shuyin's neck in excitement.

"_Shut up_." Irritated that this new line-up excluded him, Shuyin headed for an empty shower stall and hung his towel on the door hook. Still in his wet uniform, he turned on the showerhead to rinse away all the itchy chlorine first. Jecht Jr. … Again … He would never escape his father's legacy. He had lost his key position to his best friend, of all people. And just when he was feeling better about his grades, he found out that he's failing another class. Of course, he already knew he wasn't doing well, but he thought …

Removing his team shirt, he wrapped it around his hand and hit the wall, but that did nothing to ease his frustration. Palms flat against the tile, he stood with his head bowed beneath the steady spray, but the cool water did nothing to ease his hot temper. Shuyin sighed in disappointment and leaned against the wall he just hit. He couldn't face Birana at the library today—not in this mood, not like this, not with news that he was failing another class. He would have to figure out a way to tell his mother, too, and she didn't need one more worry about him—not in her condition. Maybe he just wouldn't tell her. Maybe Birana would agree to tutor him in Language Arts too.

Shuyin made up his mind to cancel the library meeting today, but invite Birana over to his houseboat to discuss both subjects … and maybe the dance as well. He would get his position back on the team. He had to.


	6. Chapter 6: Secrets

Chapter 6: Secrets

Dannae's fainting spells were becoming more frequent, and she wasn't eating much. She was suffering from depression, which was making her physically sick. Her son knew it, and everyone that knew her knew it, but she refused to acknowledge it or do anything about it. Her inability to generate enough energy for two jobs led her to lose one, and she began to isolate herself. Money became even tighter than before, and a sense of gloom began to settle over the houseboat.

One day, Shuyin sat at the kitchen bar, eating an afternoon snack and studying, while his mother stacked the dishes in the washer. A glass dropped to the floor and shattered, but she continued her task as if nothing had happened. Did she not hear it? Or did she just not care?

After a few minutes of waiting for her to respond to the broken glass, he grabbed the auto-vac from the closet and set it to sweep up the small slivers as he disposed of the larger pieces. "Mom, let me finish. You should lie down." She didn't seem to hear him, so he touched her shoulder and turned her around to face him. He was a whole head taller than her now. That and the fact that she was so thin made her seem ... fragile. "Mom," he repeated, waiting for her to make eye contact. "Go lie down."

She stared at her son vacantly, as if not knowing who he was for a second. "Did you practice your keyboard lessons?"

"Um ... yeah," he lied.

"You're a good boy, Shu." She gave him a sad smile and coughed. Then, giving his arm a pat, she left for her bedroom.

The auto-vac was already sweeping the entire kitchen floor, so Shuyin finished stacking the dishes. He was almost done when a knock on the front door of the boathouse interrupted his task. So, grabbing a towel to dry his hands, he left to answer it.

Dressed in tan shorts and a faded, rose-colored T-shirt, with her brown hair swept into her usual ponytail, Kaila smiled and waved. "Hi. Um, I was on my way to the library and happened to be in the neighborhood, so I just thought I'd stop over and say hi."

Shuyin sighed in disappointment, knowing why she had come—Koji's stupid idea suggesting him as a date for his sister. Kaila had been the tag-along or target of his and Koji's jokes for eleven years now. But despite the harassment endured at each other's hands, there was a sense of responsibility toward one another in their little trio. He didn't know if he could live with the guilt if he turned her down. So much for asking Birana to the dance. "What do you want, Kaila?"

Her lips pursed in a small pout at his sour greeting, but then she deliberately smiled again. "I have a favor to ask. Can I come in?"

Shuyin glanced over his shoulder. He had stopped inviting friends over as his mother's condition worsened, but Dannae was on the lower level at the moment, so he shrugged and stepped aside.

Kaila removed her sandals at the door and walked past him into the houseboat. Amused, she gave the towel on his shoulder a small tug. "Doing dishes?"

"Something like that." He led her into the kitchen so he could put the dish towel away, finish loading the washer, and return to his snack.

"Hm, I'm used to you being either a lazy bum or a wrecking ball, but nothing in between. Are you actually being helpful now? That's new."

"Nothing gets done around here if I don't do it."

Kaila's smile faded. "Your mom still refuses to see a healer?"

"She refuses to go for even a diagnosis."

"Is she getting worse?"

He nodded but didn't want to dwell on this topic. Looking for something to do while he waited for Kaila to pop the inevitable question, he pulled another handful of cookies from the counter jar and split the serving with her for all those years she had shared candies with him after swim lessons and blitzball games. Then, he popped a cookie into his mouth and checked the dryer.

"Thanks." Kaila ate one of the offerings.

The dryer was empty. Seeing that his mother had left the laundry in the washer, Shuyin cursed under his breath and started transferring the wet clothes to the dryer. "What did you want?" he repeated. "I was getting ready to go meet someone at the library in a few minutes."

"Oh. Well, since we're both going to the library, we could walk together."

He shook his head and reached for an excuse. "No, I have to finish my chores first."

"I can wait."

"I was studying, too."

"I can wait," she insisted, unbothered. "Who are you meeting?"

Shuyin's shoulders slumped. "A tutor."

"Are you still making bad grades?"

"If I was making good grades, I wouldn't need a tutor, now would I?"

"What subject? Let me guess—history. For a while there, every time I looked over my shoulder, you were asleep."

Shuyin paused the laundry transfer, folded his arms, and tilted his chin at her unflattering observation. "What were you doing looking at me when you were supposed to be listening to the lecture?"

"I'm not the one who's not listening to lectures. You know, I'd have been willing to help you study if you weren't too proud to ask for help."

"Ask your favor, Kaila," he prompted her again to get to the point.

She rolled her eyes at his inability to admit defeat in anything. "Okay, it's about the spring dance." Quieting for an insecure moment, she brushed the flour dust from her remaining cookies. "I was kind of hoping this guy that I like would ask me to go with him, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen." Disappointed, she moved around the bar toward the sink.

Koji hadn't mentioned that was part of the equation. For all his popularity with girls at school, Shuyin sympathized with Kaila liking someone beyond her grasp. That's how he felt around Birana. But as he considered this dilemma, his eyes were drawn to Kaila's bare feet. She was walking where the glass had broken. Lunging forward, he pushed her back and crouched to inspect the floor.

Kaila stepped back at the unexpected action. "Why are you looking at my legs?"

He straightened, annoyed at the accusation. "I'm not looking at your legs. I just cleaned up some broken glass and didn't want you to cut your foot if the vac missed a piece."

She looked over her shoulder at the auto-vac that was bumping around on the other side of the room. "Oh." Having misinterpreted the action, she fidgeted with another cookie before biting into it.

Shuyin shook his head and returned to transferring the laundry before turning on the dryer.

"Anyway," Kaila continued, "I know it's kind of last-minute, but ... Koji suggested that I ask you, instead."

With a sigh of resignation, he leaned against the dryer and folded his arms. "Okay."

Kaila blinked at his acceptance. "Are you sure?"

"I said okay, didn't I?"

Her brows knit in suspicion. "No argument? No mockery? No jokes about how I couldn't get a date on my own? That was too easy."

"You want me to say 'no'?"

"Koji told you I was going to ask, didn't he?"

Shuyin hesitated a second too long in providing the answer.

"I'm going to kill him!" Her hands curled into fists. "You knew this whole time, didn't you?"

"Look, it doesn't matter whether he told me before you asked, okay? I'll do it." He collected his digital notebook and study spheres.

"Yes, it does! I don't want you to go just because he talked you into it."

"You'd rather I go because you talked me into it?"

"Yes!"

He frowned at her logic. "What's the difference?"

She scowled at his inability to grasp it. "If he talks you into it, then you're doing it for him. If I talk you into it, then you're doing it for me."

"Kaila, do you want to go to the dance with me, or not?" he fussed.

"Yes!"

"Fine."

"Fine!" Kaila stormed out of the kitchen and back through the living room to get her sandals. She left without saying goodbye.

Shuyin popped the last cookie into his mouth and glared at the door. Something significant had happened here. He just wasn't sure what.

))((

The night of the dance, Shuyin answered the front door to find Kaila standing before him again. This time, her hair was swirled into a pretty flare with a few loose curls hanging around her face. And she wore a strapless, plum-colored dress and silver heels. He had expected some kind of glamorous caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation that girls go through for these things, considering it was a semi-formal event. He just wasn't expecting the transformation to look so … familiar. Kaila was Kaila.

"Well? Aren't you going to invite me in?" She seemed uncertain what to think of his greeting … or lack thereof.

Shuyin obediently moved out of her way. "Where's Koji?" He looked past her to the deck, but she had apparently come alone.

"He went to pick up his date—said he'd meet us at the dance." She removed her heels and hooked the straps on her fingers before entering the houseboat. "Is _that_ what you're wearing?"

He looked down at his jeans. "What's wrong with this?"

"Depends on whether shoes and a shirt will eventually be part of the game plan?"

He checked his bare feet and chest, then frowned at her disapproval. "I'm not ready yet because you're an hour early. Also, I thought I was meeting you and Koji at your place." After shutting the door, he walked back to his bedroom to finish dressing.

Kaila followed out of habit. "Well, that's what I thought, too, but Koji said he wanted to pick up his date early, and I was dressed early, but I didn't feel like sitting around watching the clock."

"Did he say who he was taking?" He browsed his closet for shirt options.

"Nope, and I didn't ask. I get the impression his was a last-minute invitation, too." Kaila glanced around his room and set her silver heels at the foot of his bed. "How is it possible for this same mess to be here every time I visit?"

"I do clean it if you're implying that I don't." Shuyin pulled a blitzball uniform from the closet and held it up for approval as a joke suggestion.

Kaila was humored. "You're supposed to wear something that matches my dress. Should I go home and change into Koji's uniform, instead?"

"Are you serious?" He made a face and put the uniform back. "What kind of stupid rule is that? I don't have any purple shirts."

She found a dubious fantasy comic with hour-glass-shaped women in chainmail bikinis half-hidden under his digital notebook and papers and began flipping through it without expression. "I didn't know about it either until Mom said something about traditions with formal events. I don't care so much. Just pick something you like. Whatever you choose will look nice on you, Shuyin."

He pulled a shirt from his closet, but then saw what she was looking at and jumped to her side in one big hop to snatch the comic out of her hands. "Stop going through my homework!"

Kaila laughed at his quick save and ridiculous claim. "What are you, a ninja? That is _not_ homework."

He dropped the comic into a dresser drawer to keep it away from her. "My homework was on top of it. You know, the homework you mashed my face into?"

Amused that he would bring that up, Kaila shoved his other "homework" items out of her way so she could sit on the edge of the bed. "You deserved that, and you know it … tipping my desk over like that."

"I was minding my own business, sleeping in class—sweet and innocent." He removed the chosen shirt from the hanger.

"Wow. That kind of lie is just _asking_ for lightning to strike, isn't it. You stopped being sweet and innocent when candy was no longer the only thing a girl needed to impress you. However, you do seem a little nicer when Koji's not around."

"Well, maybe if someone still gave me candy, instead of mashing my face into my desk, I'd be nicer all the time." He stood before her to compare the shirt to her skirt but remained skeptical.

"Oh, so, it's _my_ fault you're a delinquent? Because I classically conditioned you but stopped bringing the candy?"

"Don't turn this into a pop quiz from psychology class. I'm having enough trouble with history and language arts."

Kaila stood and took the garment Shuyin was holding, laying it over his chest and shoulders. The black, long-sleeved t-shirt with dark blue and dark purple designs coordinated perfectly between his dark blue jeans and her dress. She smiled but shook her head in dismay. "I told you not to worry about matching, but you did it anyway."

"It's just a t-shirt, but I might be able to dress it up with something else."

She lowered the shirt and stared at him with an uncertain sigh.

"Or … not." He mirrored her uncertainty. "Maybe you should pick the shirt." He gestured to the open closet.

"This is fine. It's just … Are you sure you're okay with this?"

Shuyin was confused and, therefore, cautious. "Are we still talking about the shirt?"

"Koji put you up to this. And the event is a couple's thing, but we're not a couple."

"I didn't think we had to be. It's only for a few dances."

"I just don't want it to get awkward, you know? The slow dances, between the dances, after the dance … I mean, it's not like I'm the type of girl you would normally be interested in. And I'm not the type to hang all over a guy for the sake of having someone to hang onto." She gave the shirt back, then stepped back and looked down at her toes, curling them under as if being careful where to step now.

"Well, to be honest, I hadn't really thought about all the … hanging." Shuyin smirked, thinking humor might ease any awkward anxieties.

"Good." Kaila nodded. "I guess that's the benefit of going with my brother's best friend," she lightly joked. "I mean, we'll probably end up fighting before the night is over, right?"

Shuyin thought she seemed a little disappointed to be stuck with him for a predictable night of insults and squabbles. He didn't know whether to be relieved or insulted. After all, _she's_ the one that had invited _him_ to this thing. But something about her words compelled him to take a good look at her.

He had always thought she was kind of pretty, even in shorts and t-shirts. Maybe that's why he wasn't shocked to see her dressed with a touch of elegance. She didn't need it. And he liked that he was able to be himself around her, rather than having to impress her with trick shots or high grades. She had endured relentless teasing over the years, yet here she was, still talking to him. She never accused him of trying to be like his father. And she understood his worry and fear concerning his mother. It had been a simple matter to pick out a matching shirt, yet she was behaving as if he'd made a noble sacrifice in doing so. … Or, Maybe _he_ was behaving as if taking her to the dance was a noble sacrifice. Was the thought of a date with her really that bad?

He pulled on the long-sleeved T-shirt and cast the hanger aside. "Kaila?"

She nodded in approval of his final choice.

"Don't hit me, okay?"

She quirked a brow of suspicion at the odd warning.

Taking a step forward, he leaned in and pressed a light kiss to her lips—soft, simple, sincere. Then, stepping back, he winced and waited to be smacked for it.

Kaila's cheeks flushed, but she said nothing as she cleared her throat and smoothed the wrinkles from her dress.

It was the weirdest reaction he'd ever received following a kiss, and it left him more than a little unsettled. "Well?"

She swallowed, seeming a bit flustered for words. "Well, what? Am I supposed to rate that?"

"I thought you might … fuss at me, or …"

"If I fuss, you might not do it again."

"Again?"

Lifting her chin, she met his gaze. Lips pressed together, she returned a casual nod to avoid appearing too eager.

Her subdued approval brought a slow smile to him. Well, they did have a _few_ minutes before they had to leave for the dance. Gesturing for her to stay put, he went to the door and looked down the hall toward the lower cabin. His mother didn't seem to notice him so much anymore, but he closed and locked the door to prevent any surprise entries. Then, slightly nervous, he returned to Kaila. "Just don't tell Koji, okay? He'd never let us live it down."

Kaila smiled and nodded in agreement. For once, she was Shuyin's partner in mischief, instead of her brother. "Our secret."

Sitting next to her and slipping a hand behind Kaila's neck, he dared to kiss her again. Her shoulders and neck stiffened beneath his touch, so he figured this must have felt as strange for her as it did for him. But it was a beautiful, familiar kind of strange. And as the kiss lingered, Kaila drew her hands up his back to pull him closer.

))((

Dannae surfaced from her bedroom to get a drink from the kitchen only minutes after Shuyin shut his door. Passing his room, she heard a girl's voice in low-level bits of conversation and paused. Frowning at her son's blatant disrespect for her rules about closed doors in such circumstances, she started to reach for the handle. But then, she heard him laugh and say a name: _Kaila._

Her mind had been erratic and distant lately, but she was immediately able to recall the little girl Shuyin had grown up with. _Kaila_? Dannae withdrew her hand, and though it was hard to walk away, she returned to the solitude of her own room.

Sitting on her bed and setting her empty glass aside, she lifted a holograph from her nightstand. It was an image of three children playing in the waves on the beach, a memento of happier times. Setting that holograph down, she chose another. This image was of herself and Jecht, right after they were married. Whatever happened to those happier times?

"Your son is almost grown now," she told her husband's image. "And in many ways, he is so much like you." She touched the picture as if caressing his face. She still missed Jecht. She would never stop missing him.

"Apparently, he has chosen Kaila. Remember her? He certainly could do much worse—and believe me, he has." She chuckled, but the chuckle turned into a small cough. "Shuyin needs someone like her. Someone who can temper his pride with humility … balance his impulses with rational thought … calm his chaos so that he can find peace … He needs someone who can appreciate his deep devotion and offer him unconditional love. There is nothing more I can do for him, Jecht."

She coughed again and hugged the holograph to her chest as she rocked slowly with the frame. "I am nothing but a burden to him now. He will never move beyond this boat if he feels obligated to take care of me."

Her eyes glazed with tears, and her arms felt numb from clutching the frame too tightly. Her heart ached. It hurt to think of the past, while trapped in the present. It was frightening to think of the future. So, Dannae escaped time completely by withdrawing from it, and she chose to forget … again.


	7. Chapter 7: Broken Hearts

Chapter 7: Broken Hearts

It was only thirty minutes later when Shuyin threw open the door to his bedroom and ran down the hall to answer the banging on the front door that he almost didn't hear. Still barefoot, he scrambled over the back of the sofa instead of going around it because, though he had no time for visitors since he and Kaila needed to be leaving for the dance, he didn't want or expect his mother to respond to unexpected visitors either. He was prepared to shoo away whoever was at the door, but it was Koji.

"Ready?" Koji was dressed in pants covered with lots of buckles and zippers that seemed to serve some kind of important purpose but actually didn't. His shirt was simple and white, but his long, black jacket with white accents pulled the otherwise casual ensemble together in a cool, sophisticated manner. Taking in Shuyin's bare feet, rumpled shirt, and spry hair, he was amused. "Hm, I guess not. Don't tell me you just woke up. Kaila was dressed and ready to go before I even left the house. Don't be late picking her up, or she might transform into a fiend and beat you with a big, ugly stick."

"I was ... getting dressed." Shuyin tried to avoid looking guilty as he pulled the waist of his shirt down and glanced toward his bedroom. Hopefully, Kaila heard Koji's voice and had the sense to remain out of sight until he left. "I thought we were supposed to meet at the dance."

"Yeah, about that …" Koji shoved his hands in his pockets and invited himself into the living room. "I went to pick up my date early, and we spent a little time at her place. Then I remembered you saying you were bringing a surprise. I have a little surprise, too, so I thought maybe we should discuss them here … so they don't_ actually_ surprise us there."

"Okay, sure." Shuyin scratched the back of his head, then attempted to smooth his hair back into place. "Where's your date?"

"Waiting at the dock. I told her this wouldn't take long. So … you first," Koji prompted with a hint of anticipation.

Shuyin grinned. "Wait right there." Closing the front door, he jogged to the kitchen and returned, holding a little , he gave it a shake to indicate the liquid within it. "Surprise."

Koji chuckled. "What is that?"

"My mom was going through a lot of my old man's stuff—his old sword, memory spheres, blitzball uniforms, etc. so I was helping her pull out boxes, and I found his hidden stash of nog."

"And what if we get caught drinking that?"

"Oh, it's not for us. However, I always wondered what the teachers would be like if they were really, _really_ happy. Know what I mean?"

Koji laughed at the prank. "You are one warped individual, man."

"Why, thank you." Shuyin accepted the compliment with a cheesy grin. "Anyway, your turn. What's your surprise?"

"Well, remember how Birana said she's not going to date you until you make the grade?"

"You talked her into coming anyway?" Shuyin's face lit up, and he started toward the door to see if she was waiting outside. Then he realized the complications that could come of that now and gave his head an emphatic shake. "Wait! No! Very bad idea!" He lowered his voice. "I've already agreed to go with Kaila."

"Well, see, here's the thing. Since you already agreed to go with Kaila, and since Birana is your tutor, not your girlfriend, I just thought maybe …"

Shuyin was _not_ humored. "You asked Birana to the dance as _your_ date?"

"Well, considering current circumstances, why not?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you knew how I felt about her?" Shuyin caustically returned, folding his arms.

Koji frowned. "See, I knew you would take it this way, but this has nothing to do with your feelings. That's why I wanted to explain before we got to the dance."

Shuyin winced in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

Koji sighed. "Look, Birana refuses to date you right now, but it's not because she doesn't like you. She told me that much when I asked. I'm sure when you drop that ninety on her desk, she'll never speak to me again. This is a one-time thing for one night."

"But—"

"By going to her place to pick her up, I was able to talk to her dad about possible openings in the Duggles line-up in the next couple of years. If my plan to try out for the Abes falls through, it might be good to get my name out there with another team."

The locker room conversation came back to Shuyin. He understood where Koji was coming from with this scheme now, but he still didn't like it. "Does she know you're using her like that?"

"Does it matter? She's not interested in me. She's holding out for you. It's like how you agreed to go with Kaila since you couldn't go with Birana."

Shuyin's brows dipped in anger, and he stepped closer, getting in Koji's face. "Did you throw Kaila at me to keep me away from Birana?"

"Kaila threw herself at you. I did her a favor by convincing her to do something she always wanted to do … and convincing you to agree to it."

"_What_?"

"I know you said she looked like a female version of me, but if you can put up with Kaila for one night and pass your next test, you'll get Birana anyway when all is said and done."

"_Put up _with me?" Kaila came into the living room.

Koji and Shuyin both jumped at her unexpected entrance. "Geeze, Kaila! Warn someone when you're eavesdropping," Koji complained, clutching his heart.

Kaila walked past her brother to stand before Shuyin. "Is that true? Are you putting up with me because you can't go with the girl that you like?"

Shuyin found himself at a loss for words. He'd had seen Kaila get irritated at his teasing hundreds of times in the past, but he had never seen her with this kind of wounded expression before.

"Do you really think of me as nothing but a female version of Koji?" She searched Shuyin's face for an honest answer.

"That was before … you know." To avoid spilling their secret in front of Koji, he tried to remain cryptic. "Before I saw you in that dress."

"So, as long as I wear something short and tight, I'm worthy of your attention—like that comic. Otherwise, I look like a female version of my brother?"

"No, that's not what I said," he corrected with an apologetic expression. "You're like a sister to me. I don't mind taking you to the dance."

She stiffened as those three fatal words spilled from his mouth—_like a sister_. "You don't _mind_?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" Frustrated, Shuyin ran a hand over his head and began to pace. "I'm not good with words, Kaila. Just—"

"I have always liked you, Shuyin," she bravely confessed. "I liked you from the first time we met at the pool, and through all those awful pranks you played on me when we were kids. I sat in the stands at every one of your games and cheered my heart out for you. And you want to know why I was watching you sleep in history class? It's because I was worried about you. Okay, maybe picking on you wasn't the smartest way to go about letting you know that, but that's what we've always done, so it's all I know. I was afraid you agreed to go with me tonight out of pity, but when you kissed me the way that you did just now ..." She was on the verge of tears, but her fingers curled into fists. "You have no idea how much that meant to me. Why would you kiss me like that if you like someone else?"

Koji cut a side-glance toward Shuyin. "You _kissed_ her?"

"That really great guy I was hoping would ask me to the dance … was _you_." Kaila's mascara smudged as she dabbed at her eyes. "But if all I'll ever be to you is your best friend's sister, then I'm done here." A tear rolled down her cheek anyway, but she didn't seem to notice or care. "You broke my heart, Shuyin. I just want you to know that. But don't worry. You won't have to put up with me anymore." Drawing a ragged breath to fight further tears from ruining her resolve, she ran back to his bedroom.

"Kaila, wait!" Shuyin ran after her and tried to block her exit after she grabbed her shoes and turned around. "Let me explain."

"I don't want to hear it!" She marched past him back into the living room. "And you!" She turned on her brother. "You convinced me to ask him to the dance, just so you could get him out of your way for that other girl. You used both of us! Don't even talk to me anymore!" Kaila stormed out the front door and slammed it shut behind her.

Koji immediately confronted Shuyin. "Why didn't you tell me Kaila was here?"

Shuyin frowned at his tone. "Because it was none of your business." Padding past him, he set his dad's drink on the end table. "And now it looks like the only thing I'm taking to the dance is the nog, thanks to you."

"Oh, it's my business, alright. I know you better than anyone, Shuyin, and Kaila isn't one of your groupies. I didn't set her up with you so you could take advantage of her."

"Are you accusing me of leading Kaila on, when you admit using her to distract me?"

"I didn't mean for you to _kiss_ her. You knew she'd interpret that to mean you actually _like_ her."

"I do like her!"

"That's not what you said in the locker room when I suggested you take her to the dance."

"I didn't know she liked me then. And you twisted my words!"

"Oh, come on! It's obvious to everyone _but you_ that she likes you. Does this mean that you _don't_ like Birana? If you don't, why are you angry at me for asking her out? You can't have it both ways, man—not with Kaila. And as for Birana, you would have done the same thing if you were in my shoes. You're just pissed because I beat you to it for once."

"Now, see, that's where you're wrong. I would never stoop so low as to go behind your back with a girl that I _knew_ you liked! If I _knew _that you liked her, I'd back off! Because you're my best friend, and that's what best friends do!" Shuyin and Koji glared at each other as both of them tried to find stable ground before this argument got any more out of hand.

Finally, Koji sighed and turned away. "Okay, maybe it's partly my fault because I don't speak up enough when I like something—like that time you hooked up with Gin before I even got the chance to talk to her."

This was news to Shuyin. "You liked Gin? Why didn't you say something?"

"Because Gin picked you. It's always been like that. Whatever I want, you get it first—whether it's girls, or team positions, or whatever. You hate having a legendary father? Try having a legendary best friend. People like your charismatic crap, even when you screw up. The teachers, the coach, the girls, my own sister—even I fall for it now and then. Well, no more second place for me. From now on, if I want the strawberry candy, I'm taking it. That's why I decided to take my chances with Birana while I could. Because you'll get the girl in the end, Shu. You always do."

Shuyin was stunned to hear that his friend resented him so much for so long. "We've always been a little competitive with one another, but I have _never _set out to sabotage you on purpose, Koji. In fact, you've got my team position right now."

"Only because you were benched."

"You got it because you deserved it. Didn't you hear what the coach said? Most consistent shooter on the team."

"It doesn't matter! Who wants ordinary consistency when they can see spectacular sphere shots? You're a risk, Shu, but it's a risk they're willing to take because, most of the time, you nail it. When you do, the crowd goes nuts, and the other team cowers in their shoes. No matter how many times I score, they're going to ask what happened to you. That's why Birana called you by name but didn't even know I was on the team. Yet you're upset with me for trying to win the slightest recognition with her father on _one_ date with a girl you're not even dating?"

"I'm upset because you stabbed me in the back to do it!"

"What was I supposed to do? Ask Birana to put in a good word for me with her dad? _She didn't even know my name._ And do you realize how many other nameless rookies probably hound him to get noticed? I am sick of being the shadow in Jecht Jr.'s spotlight!"

"Then, just take Birana and go!" Shuyin waved him off. "I'll spare you the spotlight tonight by staying home."

Koji seemed angry at himself for feeling angry about this. But he couldn't apologize for how he felt. Instead, he headed for the front door without saying good-bye. But when he opened it, a very unhappy Birana stood on the other side. Koji sighed and tried to smile, but it was strained. "I'm … sorry. This took longer than I thought it would. We can go now."

"No." She was so matter-of-fact about it that Koji blinked as if he'd run into a brick wall. "I just met your sister. Hard to ignore a crying, barefoot girl fleeing the scene. She was too upset to say much, but when I stopped her, she asked if I was the girl Shuyin liked that her brother was taking to the dance. She said she wasn't going with Shuyin to the dance anymore, so I could have him. I can guess the rest of what happened based on what I heard through the door just now. I didn't know this was where Shuyin lived, and you didn't tell me. Why is that, Koji? Didn't want me to see him?"

"I was going to talk to you after I talked to him."

"You're not the first jock to try and win my dad's favor by winning me. And I am not a blitzball to be netted for a score. If you wish to speak with my dad about his game, make an appointment like everyone else." She looked past him to Shuyin, who was equally surprised to see her at the door, even though he knew she had been waiting outside. "And here I thought _you_ might actually be interested in me for who I was, rather than using me to get to my father."

Shuyin gave a defeated sigh. "I'm not the one who used you, Birana."

"No? Koji told me you were going to the dance with someone else. That's the only reason I agreed to go with him. Now your date is heading home in tears because, apparently, you didn't tell her about me. Just like you didn't tell _me_ about _her_."

"There was nothing to tell! I'm not good enough for you yet, remember?"

"No, I guess you're not. But I had hoped those weren't empty lines you were feeding me all that time I was helping you study." Birana gave him, and then Koji, an icy glare and walked away without another word.

As soon as she was off the boat's deck, Koji threw out his hands in a gesture of frustrated disgust. "Happy? Now neither of us have dates."

Shuyin was livid. "You told her I was going with Kaila so she would stay away from me?"

"Did you not hear what she said? She wouldn't have gone out with me otherwise! It's all about you, Shuyin! It always is!" Koji stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him—an angry echo of his sister's emotional exit.

With all the yelling and door slamming, Dannae was drawn from the solitude in her bedroom into the living room. "Is everything alright?" she asked her son.

Shuyin stared unhappily at the door. "Everything's fine, Mom." Lifting the jug of nog from the end table, he walked past her to his room. "Just one adventure after another," he muttered.

Shutting the door, he popped the cork and took a swig of the strong drink, making himself choke it down as it burned through his throat into his chest and nearly knocked him off of his feet. In a short while, he became quite numb. But just when he was beginning to understand the appeal of his dad's drinking habits, he also began to feel quite sick.

Shuyin finished off what was left of his dad's nog all by himself that night. And after much puking, he then dragged himself to bed.

))((

The next morning, Shuyin's tongue felt like leather, and his head had a machina army marching through it. Moaning at his irrevocable discomfort, he looked at his alarm clock. It was past noon. Wasn't there something he had to do today? Game ...

"Game!" Sitting up in bed, he threw off the covers but immediately groaned again and grabbed his head. Standing slowly, he stumbled to his drawers for a clean uniform. No shorts were available, but he remembered the shirt hanging in his closet. The rest of his uniform was probably still in the dryer.

The thought of trying to play blitzball in this condition almost made him sick. Then, he remembered he wouldn't be playing today. He'd been benched. He still had to show up in uniform on game day, though. Those were the rules if he wanted to remain a team member. At his touch, the memo pad on the wall lit up the calendar display for the day. His game was in two hours. Maybe that would be enough time to settle his stomach and feel better.

Shuyin padded into the kitchen to butter some bread and pop it into the range. He selected the toast option and poured some juice to rinse the awful fuzz from his tongue when the comlink in the living room chirped with an incoming message. Shuyin left his toast to touch the receive button.

On the screen, Koji chuckled lightly at Shuyin's morning expression and messy bed-hair. "You look rough, man—_really rough_."

"What do you want?" Shuyin groused, still in a foul mood from the night before.

Koji's attempt at humor faded, and he drew a somber breath before saying more. "Listen, I ... didn't mean to blame you for my failures. I just wanted you to understand why I did what I did concerning Birana—one night out, no strings attached. I set it up so I would take the blame if she got mad. If I meant to stab you in the back, I would have shown up at the dance with your girl and let the pieces fall where they may, instead of talking about it first. I never meant for it to turn out this way."

Shuyin grew quiet, wondering how anyone could envy his tattered life. Then, with a sigh, he scratched the back of his head. "You're not a failure, Koji. School is easy for you. You're one of the best shooters on the team. You've got good sense—better than me most days. And you've got a great family. You've never had to put up with the kind of crap I go through here. If not for blitzball, friends, and girls … what would I be? Those things are my escape, man. I thought you knew that after all these years."

"Are we okay, then?"

Shuyin realized that Koji's resentments had built up over a long time. Stuff like that didn't go away overnight. He had no idea his friend felt that jealous about all the attention he got, but now that he knew, how could he ignore it? "I guess so."

Koji nodded, tense but relieved. "Did you go out at all last night?"

"Nope. Stayed home with the nog."

"Ah." Koji smirked. "So, that's what a hangover looks like. It's not pretty, Shu."

"Doesn't feel so good, either. Did you go to the dance anyway?"

"Yeah, but you didn't miss much. In fact, you should have come and put your little secret in the punch to liven things up a bit."

"Did Kaila and Birana go?"

"Birana came and shifted around with other guys, but Kaila went straight home and hasn't been out of her room since. She's _really_ upset."

"Think she'll talk to me?"

Koji shook his head. "She's not talking to me, so I doubt she'll talk to you."

"Is she coming to the game today?"

"Doubtful."

Shuyin groaned and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "I really need to talk to her."

"I can pass her a message if you like."

Shuyin's brow furrowed, troubled. "Nah, just ..." He thought about it and changed his mind. "Just … tell her I want to see her, so we can talk. I think she needs to hear the rest directly from me."

"Okay, I'll see if she's willing to come with me before the game." He paused and then frowned in mock threat. "But _you_ will stand on the opposite side of the room, fully dressed this time."

Shuyin snorted at the command and almost said something defiant in return but smiled quietly to himself as the sphere blinked off.

When he returned to the kitchen to check on his toast, his mother entered with her usual vacant expression. Then she stopped as if she had forgotten what she came for. "Need something?" he asked. When she did not respond, which was becoming all too commonplace now, he set his glass on the counter and placed his hands on her shoulders, bringing her focus to him. "Mom, what do you need?" Something looked different about her today. Her eyes were red from crying, and the dark circles under them looked darker. "Does something hurt?"

She shook her head and avoided looking at him. "It hurts too much."

"What hurts too much?" he asked, concerned and puzzled. "Let me bring you back some healing potions from the locker room today, okay? Please? Will you take some medicine if I bring it to you?"

She shook her head and started to cry again. "I can't do it anymore, Shu. I'm so sorry."

"Do what?"

"But, you'll do just fine. Right?"

"At _what_?"

"She'll help."

"Who?"

"The one you've chosen."

Shuyin shook his head at her incoherent mutterings and sat down to eat his toast. When he was done, he put away his dish and grabbed the rest of his blitzball uniform from the dryer. Then, he went to the bathroom to shower, change clothes, and brush his teeth. Not long after that, he heard a knock at the front door. Knowing that would be Koji, Shuyin jogged to the living room to answer it. "I'm almost ready. I just have to pack my bag," he told him as he let him into the living room.

"Okay. Oh, and ... Kaila's here, but she's not happy about it, so don't expect much," Koji whispered in warning as his sister came in behind him and gave Shuyin a cold glare.

Shuyin felt relieved but became nervous about screwing up a second time. "Oh, good. Okay. Um, ..."

Glass shattered in the kitchen.

"Damn," he muttered and looked over his shoulder. "We're going to be eating off of coasters if she keeps this up," he told his friends before heading back into the kitchen, annoyed but prepared to clean up another mess. He expected to find her on the floor, having fainted again. So, ignoring his broken juice glass, he dropped beside her and turned her head toward him to check how alert she was first.

"Shu ..." With tears in her eyes, Dannae touched his cheek with a cold, wet hand.

"Mom, you need to go back to bed." He raised her shoulders and started to help her up, but then noticed how unusually limp and pale she was.

"I loved both of you so much. Someday … I know you will understand." Closing her eyes, she released her pain with a soft, sad sigh.

"Mom?" He touched her cheek, and her head tilted away from him, unresponsive. "That's it. I don't care what you want. I'm taking you to a healer. You have to do this, like it or not," he fussed, not realizing how much he sounded like his father all those years ago.

With caution, Koji had followed Shuyin into the kitchen. He took one look at his friend's mother on the floor, and then the sink, before realizing the full extent of what had happened. "Shu ... let her go." Sympathetic, he crouched next to him and placed a hand over Shuyin's shoulder.

"She's just fainted again. She does this all the time. Hold the door for me," he instructed, slipping his arms underneath his mother's frail body.

"Put her down, Shu," Koji repeated a little more firmly. "You can't help her now."

"What? No. I don't care what she says, I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago. I'm taking her to a summoner."

Koji grabbed Shuyin's shoulders to prevent him from standing. "Would you listen to me? You can't help her anymore." He lifted one of Dannae's wrists.

Kaila had come into the kitchen behind her brother and stood in the doorway, stunned. But she gasped when she saw what Koji was trying to show Shuyin.

Shuyin's heart constricted as his eyes followed blood smears he had not noticed before. "Mom?" Her wrists bled onto her hands, smudged her nightgown, and smeared the floor. He looked at the tainted-red water and the knife near the sink where she stood before she fainted. "No." Releasing her shoulders, he stood and backed away, shaking his head in disbelief. "No, she wouldn't do that. She's sick, but she wouldn't give up like that. A summoner or a white mage can ... can still heal her." His voice caught in his throat. A rush of emotions suddenly overwhelmed him.

"Shuyin …" Kaila rushed to his side and tried to turn him away from the sight.

"Kaila, please, go get a summoner," he begged.

"But she's already—"

"She's not dead yet! She needs a summoner!"

Koji touched his sister's arm. "Contact the temple and ask for one of the summoners. We still need someone to do the sending."

Hesitant to leave Shuyin, Kaila nodded and ran out of the kitchen.

Tears filled Shuyin's eyes as he knelt at his mother's side and lifted her hand, unable to make the connection between her wounds and lack of response. "Why would she do this?"

Koji sighed with sadness. "Why does anyone do it? Reality becomes too much of a burden. A quick escape is easier than worrying over a long time."

Shuyin sniffled as he looked at him with a wounded expression. "Are you saying she did this because of me?"

"No, of course not. I'm just saying it's not surprising. She was long gone before today, Shu. You know that. We all saw this coming. It was only a matter of time."

"How can you say something like that at a time like this?"

"Have you been in denial the whole time you've been taking care of her?"

"It's kind of hard to deny broken glass all over the floor, nothing being done around here, and having to answer calls about why my mom isn't showing up for work again."

"Which is why I said we all knew this was inevitable."

"So, I should have had a summoner waiting outside to do final rites at any given moment?"

"No, but if you really didn't want this to happen, you could have brought a white mage to the house before now."

"She didn't want me to! I was trying to respect her wishes!"

"Well, if you weren't trying to save her, what did you expect?"

"You think I didn't try to save her?" Shuyin's composure broke as he raked a hand across his face to wipe away the tears, smearing the bloody smudge that his mother's last touch left on his cheek. "She didn't want to be saved! I did everything I could to change her mind!"

"Except, bring a white mage to the house!"

"So, you _are_ saying this is my fault!"

Koji's patience with his friend's erratic behavior waned. "All I'm saying is she's been losing her freakin' mind ever since your dad left. It's as if she needed someone to slap her around to keep her sane or something. If you truly wanted to save her, you could have done something different to help. Look, I know you're upset, but don't take it out on me. I'm sorry your mom killed herself, but it's not my fault she felt there was nothing left to live for."

Shuyin stared at his childhood friend with more hurt and hate than he ever thought he was capable of feeling toward him. Clouds darkened his ocean blue eyes, and he took one step forward to confront his accuser. "Get out."

"Okay, I admit that was out of line. I'm probably still wound up from last night, but blaming me because you're feeling responsible for this is—"

"Get out!" Shuyin gave Koji's chest an open-handed shove.

Straightening his uniform shirt, Koji met Shuyin's glare with narrowed eyes. "You know what? I don't know why I even bothered trying to patch things up with you. You are _just_ like your father—hot-headed, arrogant, and unable to see the truth when its right in front of you." Turning around, Koji marched out of the kitchen toward the front door.

Kaila peered into the kitchen with caution, but Shuyin's dark demeanor told her to keep her distance. "A summoner is on his way," she quietly informed him. "I'm so sorry, Shu." Wiping a sympathetic tear from her own eye, she approached to give him a hug, which he did not resist.

Resting his cheek on her shoulder, Shuyin sniffled and let the tears silently fall.

"Do you want me to stay with you until he comes?"

"I think … I'd rather be alone."

Kaila nodded in understanding, released him, and reluctantly left him to his grief.

As he watched the door shut, Shuyin mentally kicked himself for forgetting to apologize to her for last night. But then his attention returned to his mother's lifeless form. Koji was right. He did feel responsible for not being able to save her. But there one person he blamed more than himself. If his Jecht had not abandoned them, Dannae would not have had such a difficult life. Kneeling beside his mother, he gently lifted her torso into his arms. Hugging her to his chest, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and cried. "I'm sorry I wasn't an easy kid, but ... I never did anything to hurt you like he did. How could you leave me like this to be with him? Why did you always love him more than me?"


	8. Chapter 8: Star of the Abes

Chapter 8: Star of the Abes

Shuyin was escorted to the temple by some white mages while summoners took care of Dannae's body and the tragic scene she left behind. After his mother's casket was lowered into the water and her soul was sent to the Farplane to be with her long-lost husband, Shuyin sat on the edge of the pier, feeling nothing but alone.

When the sending was done, temple representatives spoke with Shuyin about his living conditions and relatives. Then, they took the orphaned teen to the temple until a decision could be made about what to do with him. A month passed, and no living relative came forward to claim him. So, he tolerated the legal fuss while they worked out the details regarding the houseboat and his parents' other assets. Eventually, it was decided that, since he had no means of making payments on the docking rent, his home would be impounded and liquidated into an inheritance estate. It was also decided that he would be housed in a dorm at the temple's boarding school until he became a legal adult.

Unhappy with the temple's decisions for his future, Shuyin made a decision of his own and went to the main office of the Abes blitzball team. There, he waited all day in the office, napping on the sofa and staring out the window at the sea, until he was granted permission to speak with the coach.

"What do you want, kid?" Coach Bicket took a seat at his desk. "School endorsement? Field Day tickets? Guest speaker at the awards banquet?"

"A job."

Surprised, Coach Bicket chuckled. "You and every other kid out there who dreams of being a blitzball player. You waited all day for that? Go back to school."

"If I go back to school, they'll take away my home. I need to pay docking rent to keep it. So, I need a job." He paused. "A friend of mine said he heard the Abes were going to open a junior position once Zak retires this summer, only I can't wait that long. I'd like to try out for the position now."

Coach Bicket shook his head. "We're not holding tryouts right now."

Stepping forward, Shuyin dropped a folder with his stats onto the man's desk. "Please. I _need_ this." He was not above begging. "Just give me a chance to show you what I can do. I'll even take a part-time position or work as an equipment manager."

"Look, if you really think you can handle the pressure of the big league, come back this summer and try out with everyone else."

Shuyin panicked. If he waited, he would have to compete with Koji and who knows how many other players. Drawing a breath to calm his nerves, he opened his mouth and did something he swore he never would do. "I'm Jecht's son." With his only trump card on the table, he watched the man's face wash over with a very different expression.

Coach Bicket leaned forward with new interest and curiosity. "Tidus? _Little_ Tidus? You were knee-high to a pyrefly the last time I saw you. Course, that was before Jecht disappeared. It's been, what, about ten years now?"

"Nine," he politely corrected. "But now my mother is gone, too, so they're going to keep me at the temple and sell my dad's boat—my home—unless someone can make the payments on it." Shuyin felt as if he was betraying his own soul. "I'd … really like to carry on my dad's legacy and play for the Abes … if you give me a chance."

Coach Bicket leaned back in his chair to give this proposal considerable thought. "Can you do your dad's shots?"

"Some."

"Jecht shot?"

Shuyin shook his head, disappointed to have to admit it. "But I can do a sphere shot. I've been playing since I was five. And I've won awards. And those are copies of my high school score sheets for the past three years." He opened the folder and passed one of the documents to the coach. "I've played all positions, but I'm strongest as a forward. Just get the ball to me, and I'll do whatever I can to make those goals happen."

The coach looked over the impromptu portfolio. "High school trophies mean nothing to me, but the fact that you have a string of awards says something about your determination, I suppose. And the fact that you're Jecht's son would definitely have popular appeal ... as well as potential." Bicket set the documents back in the portfolio, interlocked his fingers over it, and leaned forward again. "Come to the practice pool tomorrow morning at ten. Bring your gear. We'll run you through a few drills with the rest of the team to see if you can keep up. I don't normally make exceptions like this, but for Jecht's son, I'm willing to see what you can do."

Shuyin smiled, relieved. "Thank you. I'll do my best to make it worth your while." He bowed, knowing every little bit of gratitude might help.

"If you're Jecht's son, I know you will," the coach responded.

After returning to the temple, Shuyin informed the officials of his decision and asked permission to quit school in favor of employment to keep his home. He explained his tryouts with the Abes, and though they were doubtful of his ability to handle adult financial responsibilities at his age, they were curious about the possible results. Apparently, even the temple summoners and white mages were blitzball fans, so they agreed to wait for the coach's decision.

))((

The next morning, Shuyin showed up at the pool and endured everything the professional blitzball players threw at him, including the jokes, comparisons to his father, and painful reminders that he wasn't yet as skilled as they were. But he held up well to their tests and even managed to impress them by scoring three times against their defense with his superb trick shots. By the end of the day, he came out of the pool, battered from the hardest tackles he'd ever experienced in his life and breathless from the longest underwater plays he could ever remember. But Coach Bicket shook his hand and welcomed him to the team.

Though still considered a ward of the temple until he reached legal age, Shuyin convinced the city officials to draw up legal papers granting him special permission to manage his parent's property. The templed released him to go back home.

It was a mixed blessing.

The summoners cleaned the houseboat, donated some food until he could earn his first paycheck, and checked in on him regularly. But he still had to go through his mother's belongings, so the first nights alone were spent in lingering grief. Mercifully, those nights were short due to the long hours of daily training and work maintaining the boat. He often crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow and slept hard until the morning alarm went off.

He was careful to meet all of his payments and scrimp on his expenses because he knew that if he missed one, he would end up back in the temple's boarding school. And as he made friends among his new teammates, he stopped missing his old friends at school. Slowly in this manner, Shuyin began to rebuild his life.

Before he knew it, training season was over, and blitzball season arrived. He had three new uniforms in his closet: a set of black shorts with a hooded, short-waisted, yellow vest; a set of black shorts, with a red-and-black checkered shirt and a long yellow and blue vest; and a set of blue and black shorts with a yellow jersey bearing his name and the Abes insignia in bold red and black lettering across the chest and back. His dreams were finally within reach, even if it took a tragedy to get there.

Publicity machines went into overdrive. Jecht's son had signed on with the Abes! All of Zanarkand was talking about it. Great things were expected of him. And photo ops of the new team formation had been taken and were broadcast on digital billboards and com casts. Shuyin was shocked to see his face in such a public venue alongside his dad's. It was exciting, but a little frightening as well. Once people began to recognize his face, there would be no turning back.

))((

Shuyin had never been nervous before a game, but on the night of the season opener, he felt as if he were reliving his first swim lesson all over again. He found himself wishing Kaila or Koji were there, but he had not seen either of them since the day of his mother's death. So, he kept to himself, pacing the locker room, stretching his neck, arms, and legs while waiting to enter the sphere pool.

"Gyaaaa, you need to _sit down_," teammate Kiryl complained as she tied her long, auburn braids out of her way. "You're making me nervous just watching you."

"What if I mess up?"

"Then, we'll kick you off the team." Toma pushed a strand of eye-length brown bangs behind his left ear and laced up his waterproof shoes. He looked severe about the claim until their newest player's expression drooped. "That was a joke." He chuckled. "Was your dad like this? I can't imagine Jecht getting nervous about a game."

"Probably because he was too drunk," Shuyin muttered under his breath and walked to his locker. He pulled out his game notebook and went over the play strategies again in his head. Then, he made himself close the book and put it back.

"It's his first pro game. Give the kid a break." Naya shook out her short, silver-blond hair and pulled on her black gloves designed for gripping a wet blitzball.

"Just go out there and show them what you do at practice every day." Kiryl snapped her goggles into place on her face and adjusted the elastic band to hold them securely. "Let me show you something." Standing, she pinched Shuyin's arm guard as he adjusted the strap. Leading him from the locker room through the back door, she took him up the stairwell to the door that opened to the sphere pool and stadium. Pushing the door open a little, she let him see what was going on outside.

"So many people." His brows rose with worry. "Why'd you show this to me? I don't need to see this right now. I've never played for a crowd this big before."

"Better for you to freeze up now than during the game. But look at it this way: those people are so small and distant, that you're not even going to be able to see them once you get in the water. It will all be one big blur behind the cyber net."

"What are you doing? Are you trying to freak him out?" Naya climbed the steps behind them and pulled the door shut. "I know what good for pre-game jitters. Come with me." She grabbed Shuyin's hand and pulled him down the stairs behind her to the locker room's front door.

"Where are you going? It's almost game time," Toma fussed.

"Who's throwing the ball in?"

"Don't know yet."

"Then we've got plenty of time." Naya waved off Toma's concern and lead their youngest player down the hall behind her.

"Where are we going? You better not get me fired before I earn my first win," Shuyin warned.

"Stand right here," she instructed, then left him for the large door at the end of the hall.

Shuyin was baffled by the pointless command. "What do I do while standing here?"

"I dunno. Look sexy or something." She winked and pulled the door open.

Having no idea what she was up to, he returned a doubtful expression and folded his arms.

Naya stuck her head out the door, pressed her fingers to her lips, and gave a piercing whistle. "Listen up, everyone! We've got a few minutes before the game starts! Who wants an autograph from Jecht Jr.?"

Shuyin frowned. "That's _not_ my name."

"It is for tonight. You're new, and you're the son of a legend. Smile, look pretty, and do your sphere kick. They'll love you, even if you mess up. Have fun while you can because once you become yesterday's news, fans won't tolerate screw-ups and losing streaks. Fans are the most devoted, yet hardest critics of all." Naya grinned as anxious blitzball fans ran down the ramp to meet him and ask for autographs. "Sorry, only time for a few. We'll drag him to the Waterwall sports bar in the Neon District after the game. The rest of you can get a piece of him there." Naya shut the door to keep the crowd size under control.

"What?" He felt as if she had just offered him up for the main course.

Naya strolled casually back to his side. "This will get your mind off the nerves. Trust me." The woman folded her arms over her short, yellow vest and leaned against the wall behind him.

"Have fun," Shuyin told himself. That was important to him a long time ago—something he had forgotten lately. Accepting pen and paper from one of the fans, he smiled and signed his name. "There you go."

The boy squinted at the signature. "Tidus? You're the guy that took Zak's place, right?"

"You can read my handwriting? My language arts teacher said it sucked."

"Well, it still sucks, but I can read it."

"Oh."

"You look really young for a pro." Another fan handed him a paper.

"Well, I guess I kind of am." He didn't want to explain any further than that, but he signed his name and returned the paper. Then, he turned to another boy and accepted his pen and paper.

"Could you sign two for me? I'd like one for my sister," the boy asked.

"Sure thing." Shuyin signed and passed one paper back in exchange for another. "Is your sister being shy?"

"No, she said she had more important things to do."

Shuyin lifted his chin and blinked at the boy. "What's more important than blitzball?"

"Well, she's not really a blitzball fan. In fact, she doesn't like it at all. She promised me she'd come with me to a game, but she keeps making excuses not to. If I show her I got a player's signature, maybe it will remind her to keep her promise."

"Oh, well, in that case, what's your sister's name?" He crouched eye-level with the boy to see his face under the hoodie he wore.

"Lenne," the boy quietly answered.

"Okay, then. This one's for Lenne." Shuyin wrote a message, rather than a signature. "That should do it. And if she still doesn't want to come to a game, we'll brainstorm a way to talk some sense into her, okay?"

The boy read the message aloud. "'Lenne, you made a promise to your little brother. Get your butt in this stadium to watch a game.'" Smiling at the ridiculous command, he accepted his pen back. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Time's up! No more autographs. The game's about to begin!" Naya ushered the fans back out and closed the large door. Walking back to the locker room, she smirked at the more relaxed expression on Shuyin's face. "Feel better?"

"Yeah, actually. I do. Thanks." He patted his stomach with a little more confidence now.

Naya nodded with his response and opened the locker room door.

"I saw that. Naya's got you working the fans already? Good job. Good for public relations." Coach Bicket entered the locker room with them. "Okay, listen up, Abes! Jecht, Jr. will be the one to throw in the first ball of the season."

"Me? But—"

"That stadium is ninety percent curiosity seekers tonight, and you're the main attraction. Everyone wants to see what Jecht's son can do, even the fans of the other team. So, they're going to get what they paid for. Do it just like we showed you at practice, then hit the pool. Tackle hard, and give those shots everything you got. First impression counts. Don't let us down." He shoved the blitzball into Shuyin's chest. "Huddle!"

"Everything I got." Shuyin gave the ball a light toss and caught it. Then, he joined the huddle.

"Abes!" Toma shouted.

"Abes! Go! Fight! Win!" The rest of the team responded and slapped hands together.

"Alright! Let's go show them the reason we were last year's champions!" the coach shouted.

Shuyin straightened his yellow vest and adjusted the straps of his black shorts. Then, he steadied his nerves and ascended the stairs into the calf-deep water of the center ring. He could hear the crowd buzzing with excitement all around him, but it was too dark to see anything just yet. Sitting down on the bench within the water ring, he laid back his head and closed his eyes to steady his concentration. His heart was beating too fast. _Have fun_ ...

The opening ceremonies began, and when the time came, he stood with the announcement of his name. The crowd cheered to know that Jecht's son had taken their recently retired favorite's place in the Abes. Shuyin waved to the people packing the stadium—first, a small wave, then one with both arms, as a smile found its way to his face. If all these people came to see him tonight, he would do his best to not disappoint them. _Have fun_ ...

When the sphere pool was ready for play, he looked down at the space he had within the ring where he stood and checked the position of his teammates behind him. The whistle blew, and he decided to take a chance. First impression needed to be better than good. It needed to be unforgettable. Instead of pitching the ball into the pool as he was instructed to do during practice, he tossed it high, studied its position, and leaped up to meet it. One head volley positioned the ball in the air before he arched backward and kicked it.

Clustered in the doorway, his teammates and coach gasped. If Shuyin had hit the side of the ring and fell from that height, he would never play ball again … if he survived the fall.

The ball pierced the cyber net and water spell like an arrow, where it was drawn down to the center circle for gameplay. Shuyin finished his rotation and nailed the landing.

The crowd went wild, cheering the spectacular shot. Shuyin grinned and waved both hands again, but was immediately smacked on the back of the head by his coach as his team jogged out to join the roster call.

"Don't you ever do that again without warning me first! You want to be sidelined with an injury before the game even begins? You're going to be a knucklehead show-off just like your father, aren't you?"

_Jecht Jr_. laughed and shrugged. "Just having a little fun." Running behind his teammates, he punched through the sphere pool and assumed his position for play.

The Abes lost their first match of the season, but it was a close game throughout. The loss was only by one point. Fans loved each and every shot Shuyin attempted to make ... even the ones that failed. He didn't know how long they would be that forgiving, so like Naya advised, he decided he would enjoy the fame while it lasted.

))((

At the next game, when his nerves started edging up, Shuyin left the locker room and cracked the doors between the back rooms and the main entrance, curious to see if any fans were out there again. He was awed at how many there were, but he was even more amazed when he was widely recognized.

"Look! There's one of the Abes!"

"Can I have your autograph?"

"That's the new guy."

"Jecht's son. What's his name?"

"Jecht, Jr."

Shuyin frowned and shook his head at the nickname as he came into full view instead of hiding behind the door. He was immediately surrounded by excited people holding up paper scraps, game programs, T-shirts, and blitzballs.

"Okay! Woah! One at a time." He accepted a paper and pen.

"Are you going to do a Jecht shot tonight?"

"No, but I'll do a sphere shot. And don't tell me that's not good enough unless you can do one, too." He traded pens and papers for another signing.

The crowd chuckled.

"Can you teach us how to do one?" One of the boys in the crowd passed his blitzball to be signed.

"No way! Your parents would kill me if I threw you in the air and let you land on your head."

More chuckles rose from the gathering, and the boy questioning him laughed.

"You're supposed to throw the _ball_ up in the air—not me."

"But if you can't jump high enough to kick it, then I'd have to throw you up there, too." Shuyin stuck his tongue out at the boy, giving him a taste of his own attitude, but then he spun the ball around his wrist into his finger and handed it back to him, winning the boy's grin of approval. Winning the crowd's interest, one fan at a time, with his cheerful chattiness was different from earning their admiration because of his father's name. It worked well for him. Among the autograph seekers, however, he finally came to a little boy in a purple, hooded shirt. "Hey, I remember you from last week. Are you a regular ticket holder or something?"

"No. I can't get into any of the games. But I like coming here anyway." The boy shrugged.

"Can't get into the games? Why not?"

"My mom's schedule always conflicts with the games. She won't let me buy a ticket by myself because she says the stadium gets kind of rough sometimes. So, this is as far as I can go unless my sister comes with me."

"And she didn't come this time either? Hmm. Got any paper?"

"No, but you already gave me an autograph last week."

"Well, I got another message for your sister." Shuyin borrowed a pen from another spectator and pushed the boy's short sleeve up to his shoulder. "Her name was Lenne, right?" Shuyin wrote her name on the boy's arm, making him smile a little at the ticklish sensation of the pen's felt point on his skin. "'You were supposed to bring your brother to the game.'" He paused after writing that and looked at the boy. "Why couldn't she come?"

"She had a date."

"Oh." He considered that for a minute. "Is she cute?"

The boy made a face. "She's my sister."

"Right, sorry. Didn't mean to creep you out there. Okay, how about this." Shuyin continued writing. "'Your date can't be _that_ good looking. Bring your brother to one of my games!'" The spectators looking on chuckled. "Can't hurt to try, right?" he shrugged.

"If you're looking for a date, I'm free after the game!" One of the girls in the crowd offered.

"So, am I!" Another one joined in.

Shuyin released the boy's arm and straightened. "Really? Hm, you're putting me in a tough spot. If I have to pick only one of you to go out with after the game ..."

"We could both go," one of them suggested. The other nodded in agreement.

Shuyin was stunned into dreamy silence when the door behind him opened, and teammate Luperis grabbed the back of his shirt to pull him away. "Woah! Hey! What are you doing? I was in the middle of something there!"

"Naya showed you a bad, bad trick. You got a game to play, boy." The large man dragged him into the hallway and back to the locker room.

"But I had two dates! At the same time! Two!"

Luperis shook his head and kept hauling their golden boy toward the sphere pool.


	9. Chapter 9: Songstress

Chapter 9: Songstress

Before the third game of the season, Shuyin returned to the end of the hall to see if the two girls he previously met were there. They weren't, but there were others. And this time, he did set a place and time to meet with some of them afterward. The boy that he knew only as "Lenne's brother" was also back. "Did she come this time?"

The boy shook his head.

"Did you bring paper?"

The boy returned a shy smile and handed him a piece.

Shuyin laughed. "That's the spirit! And if she doesn't come next time, I'll take you to a game myself."

"But, you'll be in the sphere pool. I can't sit in the sphere pool. I can't even swim."

"You could sit somewhere close to it. Hey, I got an idea." He started writing. _"Lenne, shame on you for snogging some lecher when you could be here at my game. I'm offering a special ring-side seat for the kid next time, and you're not invited." _Capping the pen, he lowered his voice to a whisper. "Ask your mom if you can come to the game as my guest. I can get you a seat in a place where you won't have to worry about rowdy drunks. Don't tell anyone else, though, because I'm not supposed to be doing this, okay?"

"My sister's not going to like this, you know. And my mother won't believe me."

"What do you mean she won't believe you? I've written it down."

"Anyone could have written that."

"Then come anyway, and we just won't tell anyone."

"Noooo. You'll get me in trouble," the boy complained.

"Trouble's the only thing I'm good at other than blitzball." Shuyin gave the boy a playful wink.

))((

By the fourth game of the season, Shuyin was in the habit of showing up outside the locker room to hang out with fans a few minutes before the game. The crowd that came to meet him had grown large enough that he couldn't speak with everyone, but Lenne's little brother was present again. As soon as he got the chance, he pulled the boy aside. "Well? What's the verdict? Want to see the game from a special seat?"

"My mom doesn't believe you." The boy offered up another piece of paper. "Neither does my sister."

This time the paper already had writing on it. Shuyin opened the unexpected response to read aloud. "_'Stop using my brother to send me stupid notes, you idiot pervert. If you're that desperate for a date, go doggy-hump a street sign'_?" He giggled at the scathing challenge, then addressed the boy again. "Got a pen?"

The boy sighed and passed one to him. "I was afraid you'd say that."

Shuyin flipped the note over and wrote on the back. _"If you don't like my notes, then keep your promise and bring the kid to a game!"_ He sketched a quick doodle of a monkey spanking its own bottom in the corner.

The boy looked doubtful when the note and pen were returned. "You can't be serious. I can't give this to her."

"If she's going to call me rude names, I get to draw rude pictures."

The boy shook his head and walked away to deliver the message, unable to believe that his simple request for an autograph had deteriorated into this.

))((

The season was off to a winning start so far with only one loss, and Shuyin had surprised the temple's representatives on their recent check-in visit with his modest success at managing both his job and his home. "As long as nothing else breaks on my boat for a while, I can start buying fun stuff again," he told his teammate, Luperis, as they did stretches on the side of the training pool. "My old man kept it running pretty good, but my mom really let it run down after he left. I didn't realize how bad it was, and I'm not much good at fixing things. I'm afraid the engine's going to die before I'm even old enough to get my license to drive it."

Luperis went to the music sphere player to make a song selection. "You should get a hoverbike, man. They're small, cheap, and fast."

"I've thought about it, but don't have enough gil to get anything that expensive yet." Shuyin switched legs and repeated the previous stretch, but became distracted from his count and started moving to the music. "Cool song. Who is this?"

Luperis tossed him the label from the bottom of the sphere to let him see for himself. "She's new to the scene but pretty good. I intend to go to one of her concerts as soon as our schedules don't conflict. Want to come with?"

"Yeah, but …" Shuyin gazed quietly at the young beauty on the cover photo. She had long brown hair, big brown eyes, and a coy smile that conveyed a hint of mischief. "It's been a long time since I've been to something like a concert. I don't have anything to wear but shorts and T-shirts these days."

Luperis chuckled. "Wear your uniform. That'll make you stand out in the crowd. Not that you'd ever play the celebrity card to get a girl's attention." He grabbed his sphere label back and put it away before walking around him to sit down and finish his stretches.

"Pffft!" Kiryl laughed behind them. "Have you seen how he signs autographs before the games?"

"I don't _need_ a celebrity card or uniform to get dates, thank you very much." Shuyin cast wry glances at them and crawled toward the music sphere for another look at the young woman who was singing. "Although, she might be more willing to let a member of the Abes backstage than some schmoe screaming obscenities at her from the fifth row."

Luperis laughed and shook his head. "Give it up, man. She's taken."

"Figures." Lamenting his luck, Shuyrin stood and returned to the side of the pool. "She's probably having an affair with her guitarist or something, right? It's always the skinny guitarist. No idea what girls see in them."

"You're not one to talk about skinny, kid."

"Excuse me? I am _not_ skinny."

"You're so lightweight, I could bench press you with one hand behind my back. _Naya _could bench press you with one hand behind her back. Why do you think Coach told you to hit the weight room more often? You need to survive those tackles without getting crunched, or you're going to be guzzling our whole cabinet of healing potions."

Shuyin compared his sinewy arms and chest to Luperis's muscle-bunched biceps and pecs. Okay, so he was half the size of that ape, but he proudly patted his hard-earned abs. "I may not be as massive as Mount Gagazet, but everyone knows the best gifts come in small packages."

His teammates groaned and blew off his boast with laughter, but that only encouraged him.

"It's not the size of the ship, but the motion of the ocean, baby! Hah!" He did his little victory dance to accompany his claim.

Kiryl smirked and thrust a hand into his shoulder as she walked past.

Their rookie member was thrown off-balance and fell into the pool with an ungraceful splash. Shuyin surfaced, spitting water and frowning at her for pushing him.

"I gotta hand it to you, kid. That was a pretty big motion." Laughing out loud, Luperis stood and pitched a blitzball at him. "But you better work on the size of that ship before someone from the other team mistakes you for the ball."

Shuyin squinted as it landed on the water's surface and splashed into his face. "Great. I'm going to end up dating a weight bench all season."

))((

The next time that Shuyin opened the doors to greet his growing number of fans, the first person in the crowd that caught his eye was the quiet boy he had been trading notes with. Talking to him was becoming a game in itself. So, Shuyin approached and leaned forward, hands on his knees to speak eye-level as usual. "What's the verdict this time, kid?"

"Is this him?"

Hearing a feminine voice, Shuyin looked up. Behind the boy stood a chic young woman dressed in white-heeled sandals, a white skirt with slits up the side of each thigh, and a chartreuse cami. She also wore large, hoop earrings, dark sunglasses, and a puffed cap, all of which made her look like a model from a fashion magazine. Mind turning to mush, he wasn't aware that his mouth had dropped open.

"Yeah, that's him." The boy answered her.

The petite woman lunged toward Shuyin shoving several scraps of paper under his nose. "_What _is the meaning of this? Get your butt in this stadium? Your date can't be _that_ good looking? Shame on you for snogging some lecher? You know I've met a lot of egotistical men in my day, but you absolutely take the cake!"

Shuyin realized this could be only one person. "You forgot about the monkey."

"You have no right to use my brother to send me stupid messages chastising me for not keeping my promise to him. I haven't broken any promises; I've been busy. _Busy!_ I will bring him to the game when I find the time. Until then, I will thank you to mind your own business!" She thrust the notes against his chest and turned to storm away.

"Wait!" He caught her by the arm. "Lenne … I'm just trying to help the kid see one of the games. He's been here every weekend since the season opener, even though he knew he couldn't get into any of them. If you let him come to a game as my guest, I can give him a safe place to sit."

"No."

"Why not?"

"He won't be supervised, and I am not leaving him with someone like you."

"Someone like—? Look …" Shuyin opened the hall door and pulled Lenne and her little brother inside to speak privately. "Down this hall is our locker room, and inside the back door is a stairwell that leads directly to the sphere pool. He can sit at the top of the stairs and have one of the best seats in the house for the game without getting hit by rowdy drunks."

"Or stray players that get busted up and thrown out of the pool?" She quirked a brow and folded her arms at her chest. "I know how violent this game can get since there are no rules about those tackles. Kicking people in the stomach, kicking people in the head—"

Shuyin winced and shrugged off that minor detail. "Okay, so a few players get hurled into the stands now and then. What are the chances of them scoring a hit on a kid sitting inside the locker room door? You don't even have to stay for the whole game. Just let him sit through the first quarter or something."

The boy turned with a pleading look and tugged his sister's arm. "Please, please, please, please, please?" He rubbed his hands together prayerfully.

Lenne sighed heavily. "Five minutes. Then you agree to back off and mind your own business."

"Five minutes? It'll take us that long to get in the water."

"_Five minutes_."

"Sheesh! Okay! You know, you really should consider cutting back the caffeine or something." Shuyin frowned, but then gestured for them to follow. "Just don't tell anyone about this, okay? If word gets out that I'm inviting people to watch the game from the locker room entrance to the pool, more people will want to do it, and I can't offer something like this as a regular thing."

"Then why are you offering it now? Is it because of me?"

He snorted at her question. "And you said _I _was egotistical? What makes you think I'd be interested in you? You called me an idiot pervert and told me to doggy-hump a signpost, remember?"

"Because you told me to ditch my date to watch you play."

"No, I told you to stop snogging the ugly bastard and keep your promise to your little brother. I'm doing this for_ him._" Shuyin opened the locker room door and walked his guests past the other Abes players.

"Um … " Suzam blinked in surprise at the young woman and the boy being escorted through their locker room to their sphere entrance. "What are you doing? You're not supposed to bring fans back here."

"Yeah, well ... whatever." Shuyin led Lenne and her little brother up the stairs and pushed open the door to let them see the stadium. "You can sit right here," he told the boy. "The players will come past you to throw in the ball and enter the pool, so stay out of their way. But other than that, no one should bother you here.

The boy's eyes lit up at being so close to the action. Turning to his sister, he rubbed his hands together again. "Please, please, please, please, please?"

Lenne grabbed Shuyin's arm to pull him back a few steps and lowered her voice. "Okay, what's the catch?"

"No catch." He watched his teammates jog up the stairs toward the door to await the start of the game. "Hey, don't step on the kid! Stay clear of the small, squishy thing on the left!" He ignored their doubtful expressions but was relieved when they spoke to the boy and welcomed him to the game.

Lenne looked back up the stairs and saw the smile on the boy's face as the team members acknowledged him on their way into the game. Only then did her expression soften a little. "Bahamut has always been a very quiet boy. He's really smart and super talented with magic. But he doesn't have many friends. He's going to make a great summoner someday, so why he likes to watch this barbaric game is beyond me. It's not like he's ever going to actually play it. He's never even been interested in sports until you started sending him home with those idiot notes. He's a fragile child better suited to reading and studying instead of punching someone out just to grab a ball."

Shuyin looked over his shoulder at the boy. "Maybe that's _why_ he enjoys watching it. Maybe the little guy sometimes wishes he could be something completely different from everyone else's expectations. Maybe he wishes he was strong enough to break out of that mold." He faced Lenne again.

"Did he tell you that?"

Shuyin shrugged. "Just a guess."

Lenne sighed and gave up trying to fight this. "Look, Tidus—"

"Shuyin is my real name. Not Tidus, not Jecht Jr., not Sport … I wish I could tell more people to use it because those other names carry expectations."

"_Shuyin_, then. Thank you for being kind to him."

"No problem." He smiled, folded his arms over his chest, and glanced up at the boy. But then his gaze shifted to Lenne. He couldn't see much of her face because they stood in the shadows, and she wore that big hat and sunglasses, but he was still curiously attracted. If she hadn't been so defensive about this whole incident, he might have been tempted to show more interest in her. But he promised there would be no catch, so he held his tongue.

"Are you coming? The Warriors just threw in the ball!" Cetan, another teammate, called down the stairs.

"That's my cue." Shuyin stuffed the notes back into her hand. "I'll come back at half-time to check on him—sooner if I'm out of play for some reason. He can stay for as much of the game as he likes. Just be sure to close the outside doors behind you when you leave." As he passed Bahamut on the stairs, he smirked and tugged the boy's hood down over his face. Then, he jogged out onto the center ring to wave at the fans and run toward the sphere pool.

))((

With a sigh, Lenne leaned against the wall and watched her little brother delight in his prize seating arrangement for the game. She didn't have the heart to pull him away. Looking at the crumpled messages in her hand, she shook her head in reluctant amusement and opened one to reread it. This time, instead of making her angry, it made her smile.

))((

When Shuyin stepped out to meet the fans at the next game, he was surprised to see Lenne and her brother among them. Signing autographs, he made his way to them and paused to chat. "Did you come to shove more paper up my nose, or did you miss my poetry?"

Lenne tried not to seem too amused. "Poetry? That's an interesting name for it. I came to return the favor. After what you did for my brother, I'd like to invite you to one of my concerts. Here's the schedule. I think most of the shows conflict with your games, but maybe there's one you could sneak into."

He accepted the schedule. "A concert? Cool. Do you sing?"

Lenne laughed. "Oh my gosh. You _really don't_ know who I am, do you? Can we step inside those doors again for a minute?"

Waving once more to his other fans, Shuyin pushed open the door and allowed them to enter before following. When he closed the door and turned back around, Lenne pulled off her puffy hat and shook out her long, brown hair, which cascaded down her back. Then, she removed her sunglasses, revealing her big brown eyes, and presented herself with an intentionally cute smile.

"Aaah!" Shuyin pointed to her with wide-eyed surprise. "She's you? You're her! You're that singer Luperis was listening to!" He promptly smacked the back of Bahamut's head. "You didn't tell me your sister was a famous singer when I was writing those stupid notes!"

Bahamut smiled at the blitzball player's embarrassment.

"My songs have become a little more successful than I ever thought they would be. If I go out without some kind of cover, I get noticed. And I guess I'm just not comfortable with all of that attention yet." Lenne gestured with the hat and glasses in her explanation for needing them. "I tend to get a lot of questionable notes from perverts, too, so ..."

Shuyin scratched the back of his head and tried not to look guilty. "Heh. Understood."

"Seems we both had a misunderstanding." Lenne smiled. "Anyway, you're invited to watch a concert in exchange for your favor to my brother."

"I'll be there." Shuyin was still somewhat stupefied by the unexpected meeting, but he couldn't resist the temptation this time. "And maybe after, we could get something to eat or look for something else to do?"

Lenne smiled politely, but her tone became apologetic. "I'm seeing someone else."

"Oh, right—too busy snogging," he remembered. "Can't blame me for asking." He shrugged in friendly defeat.

After scooping her long hair back under her hat, she slipped the sunglasses back on. "I'll look forward to seeing you again, though … at a concert." Taking her little brother's hand, she bowed and excused herself from the interior hall, disappearing back into the crowd.

))((

Several weeks later, Shuyin showed up outside the Zanarkand Concert Hall, and Bahamut led him inside to the backstage area. The boy then escorted him to a front-row section of reserved seats at center stage. But as Shuyin approached his seat, his attention shifted to the young man sitting in one of the chairs near him. It had been five months since he'd seen Koji, and he almost didn't recognize him. His shoulder-length hair had been trimmed to his chin. His jawline was now defined with a bit of scruff, and his hazel-green eyes had a much more brooding look about them.

Koji was equally surprised to see Shuyin. But both of them stiffened upon seeing each other.

"That's new." Shuyin scratched lightly along his own jawline. "Makes you look older."

"I feel like I've aged five years in the past five months, so I figured I might as well look the part. You're still baby-faced as ever," Koji noted. "I heard life as a ward of the temple has been good to you—letting you live on your own, allowing you to get a job, and all. But you are still technically an underage dependent, right?"

Shuyin frowned at the cool undertone in that statement. "How's Kaila?"

"Moving on."

"You … know each other?" Bahamut asked.

"Yeah," Shuyin reluctantly answered.

"What are you doing here?" Koji asked, acting uninterested, though he was obviously curious.

"Lenne invited me."

Koji's eyes narrowed speculatively, but he chuckled as if reluctantly amused at something. "Why?"

"I let her brother watch a free game, so she's letting me watch a free concert."

"That's it?"

"That's it. How do you know her?"

Koji gave his childhood friend a wry smile. "She's my girlfriend."

Shuyin smirked, thinking it was a joke. "No way. How'd you manage to hook up with someone like her?"

Koji was not amused. "Is it that hard to believe that she would be interested in me? Do you see me as that much of a loser without your shining personality to help me attract women?"

Shuyin's smirk faded. "I'm just asking how you met her. Stop reading stuff into it that's not there."

"Well, for one thing, you weren't around." Koji absently tapped a finger on the arm of his seat. "For another, a friend of a friend introduced us, and she liked the fact that I was a genuine personality compared to the show-offs that usually try to impress her."

Shuyin's mood soured at the subtle jab. "Well, if she doesn't like show-offs, then you have nothing to worry about with me being invited."

Wary of the double-edged conversation, Bahamut took the seat between them—to keep the two young men separated if nothing else.

Shuyin felt uncomfortable being there now. The conditions under which their friendship ended were still too fresh in his memory. But he didn't want to offend Lenne by walking out on her concert, so he made himself sit down and turn his attention to the empty stage. With nothing more to say to his former friend, he became uncharacteristically quiet.

"So, how is it? Playing for the Abes." Koji pulled an ankle over one knee and clasped a hand over it. "Not surprising to see how quickly that part-time junior slot got canceled as soon as you signed on. If Jecht Jr. steps up to the try-outs, the rest of us poor bastards don't stand a chance, do we?"

Shuyin shook his head, knowing Koji would eventually bring that up. "I needed the job so I could keep my home," he answered, not wanting to discuss it.

"The thing that puzzled me the most was that they canceled the try-outs. They didn't even make you wait until summer. All you had to do was waltz in there and tell them who your father was. Am I right?"

Shuyin turned in his seat to speak across Bahamut. "They didn't make me wait until summer, but they _did_ make me try out. I had to prove I could handle it, just like anyone else. I earned my position. It wasn't just handed to me."

"You dropped Jecht's name, or you would have had to wait until summer with everyone else."

"I couldn't wait until summer because my mother _died_ in the spring. Surely you remember that day because you're the smart-ass that saw it coming."

Bahamut cleared his throat to remind them he was there.

Shuyin sat back in his chair and faced the empty stage as the lights began to dim. He tried to ignore Koji's presence so he could enjoy Lenne's show. But the more that he thought about Lenne, the harder it was to swallow the fact that she was with Koji. Ironically, he realized the resentment he felt was probably similar to how Koji felt about him all along. It was stupid to fight over a girl again. Stupid!

))((

The music started, and the spotlights flashed toward the stage. Lenne stood at the center of attention and grinned down at the guest box where her boyfriend, her brother, and her special guest sat together. None of them looked happy, so she began to wonder if something happened. But she kept smiling for the sake of the show.

As she started to sing, Shuyin stood and headed toward the exit. Pausing at the door, he turned around to watch her for a moment longer, but then he reluctantly left the concert hall.

Lenne's smile faded, but she continued singing. Inquiring about it would have to wait. For now, the show must go on.


	10. Chapter 10: Star Struck

Chapter 10: Star Struck

The next night when Shuyin came out of the locker room after a late evening, he was surprised to find Lenne waiting for him outside the backroom door. Hair up in the puffy hat again, she didn't need the sunglasses because her features were hidden by dark shadows. There was no crowd because it wasn't a game night, but this time not even her little brother was present. Greeting him with an uncertain smile, she stood from where she sat on a low wall, listening to some music, and draped her headphones behind her neck before turning the music off.

Wary of her unexpected appearance, Shuyin half-expected Koji to appear from around the corner.

"I saw you leave the concert."

"I wanted to stay, but something came—"

"I asked Koji what upset you. He said you used to be friends but don't get along now. I'm sorry. I didn't realize seating you together would put you both in an uncomfortable situation."

Shuyin doubted that was all that Koji told her. "You don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."

"If I had known, I would have invited you on a different night. I'm willing to offer you another seat when he's not there."

"Thanks, but he probably wouldn't like that." Shuyin walked around her and toward the stadium exit.

Lenne walked with him. "It's just a concert. And it's my concert, so I can invite whoever I want. It can be our little secret."

He winced as if hearing Kaila's words again. For once, he reminded himself to think of the consequences of an impulse before following it. "Nah, I'll just pay for my tickets like everyone else. It's best if I stay clear of any suspect favors."

"But, there must be some way I can make it up to you. I feel terrible about this."

"It's no big deal, okay? Really." He continued to walk, crossing one of the many floating bridges of Zanarkand that led to the docks.

"If you say so." She gave up trying to press another concert on him. "Do you always work this late?"

"Extra hours in the gym lately. I've been ordered to put some weight on so I don't get knocked senseless in the pool by someone twice my size. Everyone on the team seems to think I'm as a stringy as a piece of seaweed."

"Seaweed has its uses." She smiled. "It can't push back, but it tangles around your feet, feeling all slimy. That alone can be very distracting and annoying."

He quirked a brow. "So, I'm a slimy idiot pervert now?"

She chuckled. "I think what I'm trying to say is you're agile. You swim fast and are all over the other players for that ball. Can't be fast if you're heavy."

He couldn't help but smirk at her response. "How would you know how I play? You don't watch blitzball."

"I watched you while I was sitting with my brother."

"And now you're a fan of the game?"

"No. But I can appreciate the difficulty of moving underwater like that. After all, Koji plays blitzball, too. He's still on his school team until he graduates, which is soon. But he has his heart set on going professional. I don't like the sport, but I like him. So, I'm not going to stand in his way."

Shuyin nodded in quiet agreement. "I guess Bahamut got interested in blitzball after watching Koji's games, then."

"No, he doesn't really connect with Koji that well. I don't know why he preferred to see the Abes play instead of asking to go to one of Koji's games."

"Maybe it's something to do with the grand spectacle of a pro game."

"Maybe."

"And what about you? Are you still in school?" he asked, curious.

"I went to school at the temple, but I've already finished."

"The temple? You're a ..."

"Summoner," she answered with a proud smile.

Shuyin was impressed. "Wow. You work with dead people. That's … kinda gross, actually."

Lenne laughed. "Well, at least I'm not slimy."

"I thought all summoners were old geezers. Now I kinda wish I'd chosen to stay at the temple's boarding school." He grinned playfully. "Doesn't it creep you out, though? Working with dead people, ghosts?"

"Death is just another part of life." Lenne shrugged. "Sometimes, when restless souls become tainted with their own sorrow and hate and turn into fiends, they become a problem for the living. Sometimes, a tainted soul must be _forced_ to leave this world for the Farplane before it can rest in peace. Before High Summoner Yu Yevon established his temples to teach the Rites of Sending, our only defense was to fight them. But they often came back, and more people got hurt in those kinds of encounters. It's better to help the dead find their rest peacefully … _before_ they can harm the living, ne? In this way, I protect life by tending to the dead."

Shuyin grew quiet as they crossed toward the end of the large bridge. "I remember watching them send my mom. All those pyreflies breaking apart and floating away to the Farplane while her body sank into the ocean ..."

Lenne nodded. "Well, at least watching a sending isn't as uncomfortable as watching someone call the dead back to life."

He stopped and blinked at her. "You're kidding, right? They can do that?"

"Some summoners with a strong awareness of the spirit world can draw pyreflies from the plane of magic and use them to temporarily revive the souls of the dead. And if the summoner is _very_ strong, he can draw enough pyreflies together to resurrect the soul as an aeon."

Shuyin made a face. "What's an ... aeon?"

"It comes from an old word from Earth. An _eon_ kinda means _forever_. Aeons are immortal, like all spirits. But they're different because they're pure. They haven't been tainted with vengeance. They're _good_ fiends, if you like. Aeons can be banished like ordinary fiends," she explained, "but once an aeon has been created, other summoners can ask for its aid again and again. Aeons can help summoners defeat the tainted fiends to send them to the Farplane."

"And here I thought summoners were only good for summoning white magic, sending dead people, and telling us to sit up straight during prayers." Shuyin changed his expression and voice to mimic that of an old priest. "There are many mysteries in magic you couldn't possibly understand. You are not a summoner, my child. All you need to know is how to bow to Yevon. He is your _god_."

Lenne chuckled at his imitation, even if his comments bordered on sacrilege. "Well, he _is _capable of bringing the dead back to life. Not many people can claim to do such miracles. But that's why he built temples all over Spira to train new summoners—so more souls could be peacefully put to rest. They say he started as a precocious child with strong magic, like Bahamut. The souls of the dead always answer Bahamut's call. I saw him draw pyreflies over a butterfly once to bring it back for a moment, even though he was very young. If Bahamut's summoning magic grows with him, someday he might rival High Summoner Yevon himself. I'm very proud of him but concerned, as well. That's why I'm thankful you were able to make him laugh and feel included in something." She paused for a moment. "Is it possible for you to continue speaking to him at your games like that? Even if I take him to other games now, they won't mean half as much as your invitation did. Our parents divorced right after he was born, and we don't really have a relationship with our father anymore. So, as Bahamut gets older, having a friend like you to look up to would really mean a lot to him."

"He seems like a good kid, but … I'm not really the best role model for anyone."

"You don't have to babysit him or anything like that," she quickly added. "Just keep talking to him. And I'll try harder to bring him to more games like I promised."

Shuyin shook his head. "I don't think my getting involved with you guys would be a good idea. I'd better be going home. It was nice talking to you, though ... Lenne." Walking away, Shuyin left the bridge and road for a grassy hill that overlooked the harbor in one direction and the rest of the city toward Mt. Gagazet in the other. There, he dropped his duffle bag on the ground and sat down in the dark, cool grass to stretch out with his hands behind his head. Then, he drew one knee across the opposite ankle to stretch a sore muscle.

Lenne sat down in the grass beside him, almost startling him. "You don't have to give him special treatment like last time. I understand taking him through the locker room was against regulations. But would it be so hard to take five minutes to acknowledge him before a game now and then? You go outside to sign autographs at that time anyway."

"But when I talk to him now, I'll think of you. And I can't be thinking of you, okay?"

"This has nothing to do with me."

Shuyin pushed himself up on one elbow to face her. "It does now."

"Because of Koji?" she guessed.

"Bahamut should be doing big brother things with him, instead of me. If I get involved, Koji will think I'm making a move on you behind his back. There's too much resentment between us for me to be anywhere near you or your brother."

"So my brother should expect a cold shoulder from you at the next game?"

Shuyin shook his head in pathetic amusement as he looked at the ground. "No guilt trip there."

"That's how he'll interpret your silence after being so friendly before, especially if he sees you being friendly with other fans."

Sighing, he looked over his shoulder at her. "I'm not going to ignore your brother. If he's there, I'll talk. But no more concerts or notes or anything like that. Just an occasional game at the stadium."

"That's all I ask." She smiled, knowing that would have to do. With that settled, Lenne looked around at the location where he settled. "Interesting place to stop for the night. Do you live in a hole in the ground?"

Shuyin smirked and lay back on the grass again. "I live on the docks in a houseboat, but I usually stop here for a few minutes on my way home. Helps me sleep better if I can relax under the stars for a few minutes."

"A houseboat? I've never known anyone who lives on one of those. Can I see it?"

He was hesitant. "I guess, but ... "

"But …" She copied the undecided way that he said it.

"Well, it _is_ where I live."

"Are you afraid I'm going to sneak over in the middle of the night and summon an aeon down on you?"

He chuckled. "Yes. That's exactly what keeps me awake at night—an unhealthy fear of summoners and their creepy, dead fiends."

Lenne laughed and faced the snow-covered mountain beyond the city. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she flexed the toes of her boots up with a light tapping motion. "This is a beautiful spot. I never paid much attention to it before. I used to live by the harbor, too, you know. My mother and Bahamut live just down that way about five blocks inland. I live on the mainland now, in the middle of everything, but it's so much more relaxed out here."

"I've lived my whole life on that boat, but I don't remember seeing you in the neighborhood before."

"We probably would have gone to the same school if I hadn't gone to the temple instead."

"Yeah? I could've thrown rubber snakes in your face and stuff."

Lenne quirked a brow. "In other words, you were a brat."

"Well, no. Okay, maybe a little." He gave a guilty shrug that made her laugh. "But I found this place when I was a kid because it helped me calm down. I used to stare at Mt. Gagazet and try to see where our campsite was. Then I'd count the stars until I got sleepy. Guess I never got over the counting thing to help me sleep, even when I'm dead tired like tonight."

"You used to camp on Gagazet? In all that snow?"

"There's a hot spring up there where the ronso live. They like to keep it a secret, but my old man knew about it. He used to take us camping up there all the time. We'd freeze our butts off in the snow and then run into the hot springs to warm up … which would make us _even colder_ when we ran back out into the snow." He laughed, and she laughed with him. "So, we'd have to go _back_ into the hot springs."

"Perhaps you should have just set up a tent over the hot springs."

"Are you kidding? Half the fun of being up there was digging out after a big snowfall. I remember once when I was about three, the snowfall overnight was nearly up to my chest. My old man was trying to dig out our campsite, and I kept trying to jump on his snow shovel for a ride—because I did stupid stuff like that when I was little. So, he picked me up and threw me into the huge pile of snow that he'd been stacking. _Fwoomp!_" With an animated gesture, he demonstrated being tossed and buried in a deep snow mound. "Swallowed me whole." He chuckled at the memory. "But it kept me out of his hair for a few minutes."

Lenne laughed with him again. "Only a few minutes? And now that you're older, you've outgrown the urge to do stupid stuff. Except when it comes to monkeys spanking themselves on notes to people you don't know."

Humored, Shuyin shrugged it off. "Okay, so I still do stupid stuff on occasion."

"Jecht sounds like he must have been an interesting person. Do you miss him?"

He shrugged. "If he had always been like that, I might. But he was a lot more difficult to be around than most people believe. He had a bad temper and drank too much. He always made fun of me because I wasn't as good as him. Even now that he's gone, I'm nothing more than Jecht Jr. to most people. I'm expected to play ball like him, even though I'm Shuyin. I guess that's why it's easier for me to go by Tidus sometimes. It's not my real name, but at least it's not _his_ name, either. Tidus is the son he wished he could have had. Or maybe he's the person I wish I could be." Shuyin grew quiet.

"Oh, I don't know. This Shuyin character doesn't seem all that bad. He writes awful poetry, but I think he has a good heart based on what I know about him so far." Lenne smiled and rocked a little in her curled position on the grass.

"Are you really going to talk about me in third-person when I'm right here? Really?"

"Only when I have juicy gossip to share."

"Hm, juicy is usually bad."

"But even Jecht had good attributes despite the bad, right?"

He shrugged. "I guess so. I mean, _when_ he was fun, he was a blast. But when he was pissed off, all you could do was get out of his way. I spent a lot of time getting out of his way and trying to get out from under his shadow. So, mostly I just stay mad at him." He looked at her, surprised she was listening to his drivel.

"None of us are perfect, Shuyin. We are all capable of doing good and bad things."

"_You_ wouldn't have jumped out of his way." He smirked. "The way you slammed me for three little notes, I can only imagine what you would have come back at him with. You would have smacked him around with an aeon, right?"

She laughed at his teasing for her overreaction regarding the notes. "You had no right to talk to me that way, and I thought you were using my brother to try to meet me. Some people aren't above doing that, you know." She rested her chin in her fists with her elbows on her knees, and she tapped the toe of her boot lightly on the grass, watching it spring back every time she mashed it.

Shuyin thought of how Koji used Kaila and Birana toward his own goals last spring, and he wondered if his childhood friend was using Lenne now for similar reasons. As he studied the singer's profile beneath the moonlight, he found himself wondering how long she and Koji had been seeing each other, and if they were serious in their relationship. Then he felt bad for letting his mind wander. He decided he should leave.

Sitting up, Shuyin grabbed his duffle bag. "Well, that's enough time under the stars for one night." He started to stand, but fell back with a wince and favored his right foot. "Ouch-ch-ch-ch!"

"Did you hurt yourself? I can summon white magic, you know. I could—"

"No, it's nothing. My foot fell asleep because of how I had it propped on my knee at an angle."

A slow smirk curled the corner of her lips. "Well, I can fix that, too, if you like?"

"It's no big deal. Really. It just needs a minute before I stand on it."

Lenne took his ankle and gently squeezed around the bones as if feeling for an injury. "Does it hurt when I do this?" she asked, tapping one side of his athletic shoe.

He sucked air through his teeth and tried to pull his foot away, but her grip held firm.

"Hold still. I'm not done yet." She tugged his ankle to straighten his leg back out. "What about when I do this?" She tapped the other side of his shoe.

Shuyin winced and reflexively tried to pull away again. "Yes! It hurts!"

"What about now?" Still holding his ankle, she repeated the action but was unable to keep from snickering any more.

"You're doing that on purpose!" he finally realized.

Since she had already milked the stinging sensation for as much as it was worth, Lenne released his ankle but snickered and laughed that he had been so gullible.

"I can't believe you did that to me!" Shuyin tested his foot on solid ground as he stood. "You're one of those sadistic healers that rips off hair and skin along with bandages, aren't you? You know, the ones that tell you you're going to feel a _little pinch_ before they jab you with a big, fat needle?"

"I can't believe you fell for it!" Still laughing, she stood beside him.

Shuyin shook his head at her prank and his own folly, but he enjoyed seeing her laugh, even if it had been at his expense. Lenne was … fun. She was beautiful, intelligent, determined, and sincere, as well. But she was Koji's girl—not just someone else's girl—_Koji's_. "Yeah, I fell alright," he admitted, but he wasn't referring to her joke.

"Aww, you're such a good sport." She consoled him with a light hug.

He returned the hug, but then made himself step back and shifted his duffle bag to his shoulder. "Well, I think that's enough shooting stars for one night."

"Are you going home? To the houseboat that I asked to see? I promise I'll leave all my creepy, dead fiends behind if you let me see it."

He knew he should have made up some excuse to make her go away, but he was tired and had no willpower left tonight. "Fine. You can come see the houseboat."

With a grin, she scurried to his side, and together they walked down the hill toward the harbor.

"Well, here we are," he announced when they crossed the pier to where his houseboat was docked.

Lenne stepped onto the deck and strolled from one side to the other, taking in the view of the harbor. "Oh, this is wonderful! How many rooms does it have?"

"Living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, bath and half-bath, engine room, cabin. They're all small, though. It's always been here, except when my old man took it fishing. Someday, I'll trade it for one of those really ritzy skyline apartments overlooking the bay, but for now, it's better than a boarding school."

"Why would you want to do that? It's perfect being small and cozy like this." She went to the rail to look down at the dark water gently rocking the boat, then turned to face him. "That's twice that you mentioned boarding school. I thought you looked younger than the rest of the team, but … how old are you?"

"Soon to be seventeen."

"Almost legal by Zanarkand standards. How soon?"

"Next week."

She smiled and nodded, storing that information away as she continued up the stairs to the top deck. There, she gazed out to where the black sea's horizon met the sparkling, indigo sky. Not having to hide from anyone here, she removed her hat and let her hair cascade down her back. The night breeze lifted a few strands and teased them into ghostly wisps. Smiling at how peaceful it was, she rubbed a chill from her arms and looked down at the moonlight's reflection on the water's surface. "I'll bet those gentle waves make a good lullaby at night. This is amazing, Shuyin. Don't ever trade it for an apartment in the center of the city."

As Lenne took in the view of the Zanarkand shore at night, Shuyin resisted the urge to stand near enough to chase away that chill. It did feel peaceful here. But he wondered why he never noticed it before. It was probably because, until now, the houseboat just felt … empty. Or maybe it was something more. No, it was definitely something more. Climbing the steps to join her on the upper deck, he drew close to her shoulder. He wanted to invite her to stay for a while, but he made himself say something completely different. "I think ... you should go now."

Lenne faced him with quiet surprise. She seemed to be trying to think of something else to say, but after a moment, she gave up and nodded in agreement. "Well, then …" She smiled. "Goodnight. And … thanks again ... about my brother. The invitation to another concert is still open if you want it."

He accepted that. Then he watched her descend the stairs and twist her hair back under her hat after she left the pier. As the singer walked home alone, Shuyin sighed and returned to the lower deck. He let his head thud heavily against the door for a minute, but then unlocked it and went in for the night.


	11. Chapter 11: Regrets

Chapter 11: Regrets

The Abes' first loss of the season came a week later at the hands of the Duggles. Team spirits were low as they left the stadium but none lower than Shuyin's. He kept mentally reviewing his plays, wondering if there was anything he could have done differently to change the outcome. He had hoped to celebrate a victory for his seventeenth birthday, not a disappointing loss. But his only consolation was that both teams had played hard. The Duggles just happened to hustle a little better this time.

Freshly showered with a duffle bag packed to go, Shuyin hit the exit doors and walked out into the chilly night to find a handful of Abes fans waiting for autographs. There were always a few stragglers after the games, but they numbered less than the pre-game gathering. And tonight there were even less due to the loss. Still, they were upbeat and started singing "Happy Birthday" as soon as he appeared. Stunned but greatly amused, he wondered how in the world they knew … until he spotted Lenne and Bahamut among them. As they sang, she stepped forward, jiggled a wrapped box, and placed it into her little brother's hands. Then the crowd hooted and applauded congratulations.

Shuyin nodded with mild embarrassment and bowed. "Thanks, everyone. But … you really shouldn't have."

"You played well, even if it was a loss." Bahamut stepped forward to give him the gift.

The blitzball player grinned and gave the box a light shake.

"Open it! Open it!" someone from the small gathering called out.

"Now? I don't know," he answered with caution. "It might be a prank, like those things that jump out of the box into your face."

Everyone laughed.

"Why in the world would we give you something like that?" the boy asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because your sister hit my foot _multiple times_ after I told her it fell asleep."

"I promise it won't jump at you," Lenne assured him.

Shuyin's eyes narrowed in skepticism. Then, he shifted his duffle bag on his shoulder to free both hands and opened the wrapped box. "I'm not ruling it out. What do you think, kid? Is she telling the truth?"

Bahamut smiled. "It's fragile. It won't jump."

"So, according to the official records, you're no longer a ward of the temple, right?" Lenne asked. "You must be happy about that."

"All legal documents have been officially transferred to my name," Shuyin answered with pride.

"Woohoo! Those bills are all yours!"

"That's right. I'm a man now, and I have the dock rent bills to prove it." He gave her a playful wink but became confused as he lifted a memory sphere from the box.

"It's the concert that you missed," she explained. "I got a copy from a guy on our light crew. It was Bahamut's idea. This way, you can see the concert whenever you want without ... complications."

Complications … She meant Koji. Still, this was an offer to help him avoid another uncomfortable meeting.

"Do you like it?" the boy asked.

"The only way I could like it more is if it was the real thing." Pleased with his gift, Shuyin tucked it safely back into the box. "Thanks. I'll watch it tonight when I go home."

The other fans offered a few more congratulatory remarks and requested some delayed autographs. Shuyin passed the box to Bahamut as he signed and chatted with them until the gathering thinned to go their own way. Then, he took back his gift and tucked it into his bag.

"What kind of birthday cake do you have?" Bahamut asked.

Lenne elbowed him. "That's a little rude, ne?"

"I don't have one yet. I was on my way to order a slice at the Waterwall in the Neon District. The rest of the team should already be there." The logical thing to do now was to wish them goodnight and walk away. "Would you ... like to come?" The invitation spilled out of his mouth before he could rethink it.

Bahamut looked to Lenne. "Cake," he hinted with a smile.

"Well, if you're sure you don't mind."

Shuyin shrugged. "The whole team and a lot of fans usually go there after the games. I just wish we'd won, so I'd feel more like celebrating." He led them away from the stadium toward the floating bridge and the harbor.

Lenne fell into step with him and slipped an arm across her brother's shoulders as they walked. "You've lost only one game so far. That's a pretty good record out of twelve played, I think."

"So, now you're tracking our stats?"

"The kid here gave me an earful of statistics during the game. That's the only one I actually understood and remembered. I'm sorry, but I still can't get into it. I just don't see the point of risking bodily harm to kick a ball into a net. What purpose does it serve?" Lenne allowed him his inevitable frown at her opinion of his profession but then chuckled when he did.

"Well, all you do is sing. What purpose does that serve?" Shuyin retorted.

"Songs are poetry put to music." She smiled, reflecting on that. "Words can help us internalize and sympathize with each others' experiences and feelings."

"Oh, please." He rolled his eyes. "Your profession is just as entertainment-based as mine. Mine's just more difficult."

"Oh, really. I'd like to see you dance around on that stage for two hours while also trying to maintain a steady voice. It's not as easy as it looks, you know."

"I play ball underwater for two hours. I think I could handle dancing for at least that long."

She chuckled at his boast. "While singing?"

"Okay, you got me there," he conceded with a laugh. "I can't sing worth crap."

"You're right about one thing, though. We're both essentially entertainers. I guess I've just always felt entertainment should be balanced with another kind of purpose to prevent it from becoming nothing more than a self-indulgent popularity contest, you know? The entertainment business is built on other people's moods and opinions, and those things are fickle. They change frequently. When the ratings and sales go down, celebrities often self-destruct if they have no other purpose giving them that high outside of being adored by other people. I guess that sounds strange coming from someone like me, doesn't it?"

"Not really. My dad complained a lot about his contract obligations before he disappeared. Maybe his stats and popularity had something to do with why he was being pushed so hard. And maybe that had something to do with his drinking. I saw him burn out, so I don't want to end up like that, you know?"

"That's why summoning is my primary purpose in life. When I'm not singing, I'm sending the dead to the Farplane and fighting fiends. That's what I'll be doing when I'm wrinkled and gray, long after my songs have become forgotten and outdated. What do you plan to do when you retire from blitzball?"

He snorted, humored. "I've just turned seventeen, and you're already retiring me from the game?"

"Okay, then. Let me rephrase that. What would your second choice for a profession be? You're obviously very fit." Lenne smiled. "I could see you as a guardian or something."

Shuyin smirked at her subtle nod toward his physique but was seriously doubtful beyond that. "Me? A guardian?"

"Why not? Summoners are always in need of guardians to defend them while they're casting magic. And most of our spells serve to protect other people, rather than destroy fiends. A guardian is in a much better position to use a fire spell or a blade when necessary."

"Well, my old man did have a sword lying around in the closet. I suppose I could dig it out and learn how to use it. But as a summoner, aren't you supposed to be defending me? I should be able to hide behind you and let you protect me." He side-stepped behind her, then passed a hand a couple of inches above her. "Hm, that's no good. If I'm taller than you, we might have a problem with head shots."

The corners of her lips curled with a laugh. "And if I move out of the way?" She side-stepped as they walked, so she was no longer in front of him.

"Well, that would be even more sadistic than hitting my foot when it fell asleep. You have a definite mean streak in you."

"Just saying I'd hate to see anything bad happen to you if the only thing you know how to defend is a ball."

"Wait, that means you're actually worried about me, right?" He gave her a playful nudge. "And if you're worried about me, then maybe you secretly enjoyed my poetry and monkey doodles, eh?"

She laughed again and shook her head. "No. The monkey doodle was _so not happening_."

"You're smiling, though. I think you liked them," he teased.

"I'm smiling because I think you'd make a great guardian. And Zanarkand needs more guardians, especially now with what's happening in Bevelle."

"Why? What's happening in Bevelle?"

Lenne's smile faded with a sigh, and her brows rose with worry. "The Founders are getting very nervous about the way that Yevon's popularity has spread throughout Spira, so they're bumping up the restrictions on magic. They're choking off the rights of Zanarkand's ambassadors in Yevon's temple in Bevelle."

Shuyin shrugged and came to a stop at the public transport station, where he popped a fist against the large call button. "Why should I care what Bevelle chokes on?"

"After all this time, the Founders still want to reclaim Spira and take her back to Earth to scrap the whole colony project. They point to the increasing number of fiends as evidence that the use of alien technology and magic has gone too far. If they can convince Bevelle to cut off relations with Yevon, without having reached an agreement over the issues involving restrictions, Bevelle could convince the rest of Spira to break off ties with us, too. And if that happens, Zanarkand could become a political target."

"What could Bevelle possibly do to Zanarkand? We're the biggest and most advanced machina city on Spira. Plus, we've got Yevon and all his _multi-talented_ summoners," he added, gesturing to her.

Lenne appreciated his blatant, comic flattery, but tried not to smile too much when speaking of burdensome matters. "They could block our trade with the rest of Spira. They could place tolls on our only passage through the mountains, or increase taxes for using their docks. That could mean your docking rent increases down at the harbor, as well."

He straightened with annoyance. "Well, that would suck."

"And High Summoner Yevon announced yesterday that all of the city's guardians and summoners should be ready to defend it. He may draft people who are physically capable of helping build an army. If so, that would probably include us."

"You mean I might have to fight in a battle because people that I don't even know disagree on something that I don't even care about? That would really suck."

"Yeah, that would really, really suck, Shuyin," she sympathetically agreed.

The nearly invisible train slid down the rail with a hiss, and the doors popped open. Shuyin boarded the "snake" and grabbed a glowing, blue side-rail. Bahamut and Lenne followed him onto the platform but were immediately crushed by about forty other people cramming into their compartment. As everyone shifted and vied for standing space or seats, Shuyin was reminded of why he hated taking public transportation anywhere at certain times of the day and preferred to walk when possible. But in this case, he was pressed up against Lenne, so he wasn't going to complain. The doors hissed shut, and the tube whisked them around the harbor, over the water to the mainland.

The transport's brakes activated and jerked back slightly to slow momentum. Lenne stumbled against him and her brother, nearly squishing the boy between them. "Oops! Sorry."

Shuyin's eyes narrowed on her. "Did you just grab my butt?"

"_What? No._"

"Well, someone did." He frowned accusingly at the other people near enough to do so.

"Unbelievable. I'm talking about the threat of martial order being placed on us, and you're worried about someone grabbing your butt?"

"My concern is more immediate. You never know whether those kinds of encounters are accidental or on purpose."

Amused, Lenne leaned closer. "I think it was the woman to your left. She looks pretty pleased with herself, don't you think?"

Shuyin immediately checked the expression of the woman to his left but thought she looked more like she was about to fall asleep. He giggled at the bizarre suggestion, then whispered back to Lenne. "She's old enough to be my grandmother. Stop messing with my head."

"She looks like a raging blitzball fanatic to me."

He chuckled at her retort. "Are you sure she's not one of your aeons?"

Lenne stifled a laugh but gave him a light swat for the comment.

"Did you just hit me again? First my foot, now my arm ... All that talk about blitzball being too violent, but then you turn around and hit me? Tsk." His complaint only made her laugh more.

When the transport came to a stop, its doors opened with another hiss. The Neon District was colorful and bright as usual that night, and it was almost as crowded as the transport rail. Once everyone was back on the sidewalk, they made their way through the passers-by toward the Waterwall sports bar and restaurant.

Lenne hooked his arm and gave it an apologetic pat. "I didn't know you were so sensitive to playful swats, especially in light of all those tackles you endured in the game. Do you need a cure spell to fix your shoulder where I touched you?"

"Not if it's going to be anything like how you fixed my foot." He tried to pull away and block her hands when she tried to grasp his arm again. "Don't even touch me!"

They were both laughing but trying not to laugh when Lenne kissed her hand and slipped it past his block attempts to smack his arm. "There! All better."

He laughed in disbelief at the maneuver. "What kind of sorry, second-hand kiss was that?"

"The only kind you're going to get for bad melodrama."

Shuyin told himself to quit while he was ahead. Flirting with Koji's girlfriend was bad—very bad. "Well ... what do I have to do to get a better one?"

Lenne gave him a wry side-glance. "That depends on how much better you want."

"Should I be hearing this?" Bahamut spoke up, reminding them he was there.

Shuyin came to a stop outside of the restaurant and placed both hands over the boy's ears. "How many degrees of 'better' are we talking about?"

Bahamut giggled at Shuyin's animated way of handling the situation and tried pulling his hands away from his ears.

Lenne bit her lip to keep from grinning too broadly. "How about a birthday kiss? Will that do?"

"Maybe. What's it like?"

She cupped one side of his face in one hand and kissed his cheek on the other. Then she stepped back with a smile and used her thumb to brush away the lipstick smudge left behind.

It was just a friendly little peck, but feeling her breath against his ear sent a chill down his spine. In spite of that, Shuyin managed to continue looking utterly unimpressed. "Well, that was better, but it reminded me of something my mom might do."

Lenne drew back in open-mouthed shock. "I do _not_ kiss like your mother!"

"That was a _motherly_ kiss. Now I'm going to have this mental association with you that's _really_ not working for me." He moved Bahamut through the revolving door and continued to guide him into the restaurant keeping his hands over the boy's ears. Bahamut continued giggling at being "driven" to their table in this manner. "Dinner and dessert are on me since I invited you, okay? I insist."

Lenne followed with a wry grin. "So, a birthday kiss has to be something your mother wouldn't do? What exactly did you have in mind?"

Shuyin started to answer as he "parked" her little brother at one of the chairs, but then shut his mouth and shook his head. "You know what? I'm quitting this conversation before I say or do something I _know_ I'll regret."

"Your ears are turning red." She poked a finger through the wisps of damp hair at his temple. "Wow. A real blush. I think you'd better explain."

"No, you really don't want to know what I'm thinking right now. Trust me."

She placed her hands on her hips. "Is it _that_ bad?"

"_No_, it's just … It's like …" Shuyin reminded himself again that Lenne was with Koji. He told himself to step away from the pretty singer, and no one would get hurt. But then, he leaned close, intending to kiss her, but paused, as if in doubt or asking permission. When she didn't act shocked, he touched his fingertips to her face and brushed his lips over hers, soft and light as if she were a fragile thing he was afraid he might break. When she didn't push him away, he became braver, drawing nearer, pressing closer, and allowing a hint of desire to relax his underlying anxiety about his defiant impulse. But when he withdrew, he immediately felt a pang of guilt for having crossed that line.

Lenne opened her eyes but seemed to be at a loss for words.

Shuyin was stunned at his own audacity for, perhaps, the first time in his life. "Something like that," he added, as if the demonstration was a reasonable excuse for having done it.

She cleared her throat and quietly found her voice. "Well, that … that was … definitely better than any … motherly ..."

"I shouldn't have done that."

"It wasn't—no, I mean it was—it's ..." Lenne shook her head as chaotic thoughts clustered together.

"It won't happen again. You have my word." Shuyin's head dipped in deference to both her and Koji, asking forgiveness where further apology or explanation escaped him.

She frowned at being unexpectedly flustered but then studied his expression. "Do you … regret it? Or do you only regret that it was inappropriate?"

The odd question caught him by surprise. He had to think about it for a minute before answering. Lenne's eyes seemed to see right through his soul in a manner that made his heartbeat catch in his throat. "I regret that I didn't meet you sooner." Perhaps it wasn't the right answer, but it was an honest one. Ashamed that he had given in to impulse, he made himself step back away from her.

Though he half-expected her to make up some excuse to leave, Lenne seated herself, spread her napkin in her lap, and picked up the menu. Bahamut had watched the whole exchange without stirring or saying a word. But when his sister sat down and picked up her menu, he did the same.

Shuyin set his duffle bag on the floor by the chair opposite hers. Sitting down, he opened his own menu and scanned the options, but his mind wasn't on food anymore.

"That wasn't a very smart thing to do, you know," Bahamut spoke, breaking the awkward silence.

Shuyin gave the boy a tight-lipped glance for his unwelcome observation. "I'm aware of that."

"You just kissed her in front of the whole restaurant. Did you forget where we are? Or did you not care?"

"I wasn't thinking about the restaurant, okay?" Shuyin lowered his menu and tapped the number next to the meal he wished to order. The electronic menu sent the order to the kitchen.

"So, you wanted to kiss her so bad that you forgot where you were? That was quite a risk, considering you're both famous and she's got a boyfriend. If she didn't like it, she might have slapped you, or made a scene to draw attention."

"Do we have to keep talking about this?"

The precocious boy smiled. "I think she liked it."

"Really? How can you tell?"

"She's holding her menu upside down."

Lenne lowered her menu, unable to believe her little brother was having this conversation about her in her presence. But as she flushed in embarrassment, she flipped her menu right-side-up and used it to pop the back of his head. "Keep your opinions to yourself and order your food."

Bahamut placed his order on the menu, then put it down and leaned on the table, chin in hands. But he smirked at Shuyin knowingly, happily swinging his feet under his chair.

Shuyin could take the awkwardness no more. "I'll be right back." Standing, he placed his duffle bag in his chair and headed to the restroom. Hitting the swinging door on the way in, he stopped at the sink and splashed a handful of cold water over his face to snap himself back to reality. Then, he looked at himself in the mirror to see if he even recognized himself anymore.

))((

Lenne held her composure until the restroom door swung shut behind Shuyin. Then she groaned and dropped her head on the table behind her menu.

"You like him, don't you." Bahamut quietly observed.

"I like _Koji_."

"Then, why did you kiss Shuyin?"

Lenne lifted her head from the table. "_He_ kissed _me_." After displacing the blame, she touched the menu to place her order. Then she collected all three menus and dropped them in the side pocket of the table for the waitress to retrieve when she brought the food.

"But if he did something you didn't want him to do, you would have told him off, right?"

"He was right there in my face with those beautiful blue eyes, okay? How could I say no to that? Why did he have to be so cute?" she quietly demanded, sternly poking the table. "And nice … and funny … and sincere," she complained with a pout. "He wasn't supposed to be like this! Either Koji was wrong about him, or I was stupid enough to fall for him in spite of his warnings."

Bahamut straightened with a grin. "Then, you do like Shuyin?"

"_No_. I barely know him!"

"But you like him enough to want to know him?"

"No, because that would upset Koji. If only there was some way to mend their friendship."

Bahamut shook his head at his sister's folly. "Even if they got along, you'd still have to choose between them. You can't have them both."

Lenne drew back with distaste. "I don't want them both. What kind of person do you think I am?"

"A person who is questioning if reaching for what she wants is worth the risk of losing what she already has. Someone will get hurt, but eventually, you must choose."

She frowned at her brother. The kid was too intuitive and precocious for his own good sometimes. Removing her napkin from her lap and wadding it into a ball on the table, she stood and headed toward the men's room.

))((

Shuyin was drying his face in a brown paper towel when Lenne entered the men's room and approached him at the sink. "What—what are you doing in here?" He looked around to make sure no one else was present.

"Look, I don't want things to get more awkward than they already are, so I need to say something."

"You're standing in a men's restroom telling me you don't want things to get awkward?" He pitched the towelette into the trash. "There's nothing left to say. I _told_ you it wasn't a good idea for me to be around you like this. But then you brought me a birthday present, and I invited you to dinner, and then I kissed you, and now here we are." He paused and made a face. "In the men's room. Being awkward."

Her mouth twisted as she tried to keep a straight face about it. "I know. You told me to stay away, and I didn't take it seriously."

"I _knew_ better, but I did it anyway," he fussed. Sitting on the edge of the sink, he scowled at the floor.

"Exactly. I knew better, but I didn't walk away."

"This is why he hates me."

Lenne moved closer, standing before him to meet his gaze. "What happened just now … I'm as much to blame as you. I kissed you first."

"It's not the same. And I have absolutely no excuses up my sleeve to clean this up when it hits the fan."

"Neither do I. So, I think it's best if we just don't talk about it and move on. Telling Koji will only upset him, and we don't want him to misunderstand anything, right?"

"Right …" Shuyin hesitantly agreed.

"So, there's no reason for us to talk about it again. I know Bahamut won't tell him. So, if Koji finds out because someone else tells him, I'll take the blame."

"He won't believe you."

Lenne sighed, knowing he was right. "Well, it's not like we can take it back. And, honestly, I wouldn't want to."

He tilted his chin, unsure what she meant in saying that.

"It wasn't smart, but it was a nice kiss, Shuyin. I'm okay with it. Really." She admitted with a small smile. "Don't hide in here blaming yourself for something I'm just as guilty of when you should be out there enjoying your birthday dinner."

The door to the men's room swung open, and Luperis entered but stopped upon seeing the two of them at the sink. "Woah, okay! Never mind!" Turning around, he walked back out.

Shuyin rolled his eyes, shook his head, and buried his face in his hands. "Great. Now I'm going to have to explain this to the whole team."

She chuckled. "Our dinners are probably on the table, getting cold. Let's just enjoy our meals for now, and tomorrow is a new day. Okay?"

Uncertain, but agreeing that there was nothing he could do to take it back, Shuyin straightened, grateful for her acceptance and forgiveness.

Lenne led the way back to their table. Their meals had just been delivered, and Bahamut was already digging into his plate. The boy glanced between them but kept his thoughts to himself this time as he noisily slurped his noodles.

Shuyin set his duffle bag back on the floor and sat down, ready to enjoy his meal. But upon seeing his order, he made a face at one particular kind of mushroom sprinkled over his noodles and promptly used his chopsticks to transfer them to the side of the plate. "Oh no, no, no ..."

She smirked at this peculiarity. "That's a mushroom dish. If you don't like mushrooms, why did you order them?"

"I don't like _those_ mushrooms. I like the others."

"What's the difference? A mushroom is a mushroom."

Shuyin took a bite of his noodles and dropped one of the banished mushrooms from his plate onto hers. "Okay, then, you eat it." He waited, expectant.

Wondering what could be so bad about a little mushroom, Lenne picked it up with her chopsticks. But when a string of slime oozed off of it, she put it back down. "I'll take your word for it."

Shuyin chuckled. "No, no fair. You have to taste it since you dogged me about it."

Lenne couldn't help but grin. "I don't want it to spoil my appetizer."

Her reference to his kiss made him smile quietly to himself, so he took another bite of his meal. "I won't even let those mushrooms in my house, much less put them on my plate."

Lenne nudged her little brother. "Did you know that Shuyin lives on a houseboat at the docks just a short distance from you and mom?" she asked before tasting her own dish.

The boy lit up with curiosity. "You live on a boat?"

Shuyin put down his chopsticks to open a straw. "Why does that fascinate people? It's just a boat."

"Can we see it?"

The blitzball player saw that request coming and knew it had the potential for making an already awkward evening more delicate. But Bahamut was already giving him the same kitten-like expression that his older sister had used to win herself a quick tour of the boat. With a sigh of surrender, Shuyin dropped the straw into his drink and raised it to his lips. Bahamut giggled and clapped at his unspoken victory.


	12. Chapter 12: Wins and Losses

Chapter 12: Wins and Losses

Lenne's little brother walked around the deck of the houseboat and looked over the rail to gaze with fascination into the water's dark depths. Shuyin still didn't understand the fascination other people had with his home, but he supposed he never would. In fact, it looked somewhat antiquated to him. Still, if it gave the kid a thrill to visit a boat for a change of pace, he was happy to be part of that.

It wasn't long before Bahamut found the fishing pole near the door and fingered the reel with curiosity.

"You can use it if you want," Shuyin offered.

"I don't know how."

"I can show you. Got some bait right there in the cooler."

"Now? At night?"

"Sure. Fish get midnight munchies, too, you know." Shuyin moved away from the central mast where he had been standing with Lenne and picked up the bait bucket, placing it and a small folding stool near the rail. Then, he opened the chest to show off his selection of bait and tackle. "Got topwater, minnow, crankbait, spinnerbait, worm ... Let's try a worm."

Bahamut scrunched his nose in doubt. "What kind of fish would fall for this? The boat's presence here would be a sure sign of danger. And this isn't their natural food supply. If they do come out at night, which seems unlikely, the pier would be a safer place for fish to search for bugs that break the water's surface tension."

Shuyin's lips pressed together in a thin line. "Stop analyzing it and bait the hook." He flashed Lenne a glance as if to agree with her earlier statements about the boy being too serious for his own good.

Chuckling, Lenne came closer to see what they were doing. "Ew, slimy." She winced as Shuyin plopped the worm into Bahamut's hands.

"It tickles," Bahamut told his big sister. "You want to hold it?"

"Ah, well, actually ..." Before she could politely decline, the worm landed in her palm. Lenne squinted, expecting … Well, she didn't seem to know what she was expecting. Lifting her other hand, she carefully cupped the creature to prevent it from falling. "It feels … fragile."

"Woah, a girl who can hold a worm without creeping out. You _are_ special," Shuyin jokingly commented.

"I passed the worm test, did I? Is that something I should be proud of?"

"Well, when you work with dead people, a worm is nothing, right?"

Lenne grinned. "Living on the water … Camping in the snow ..." She carefully deposited the worm back into her brother's hand. "Most Zanarkand residents don't get opportunities for adventures like that. Do you ever wish you could take the boat to more open spaces and leave the city?"

Shuyin turned his attention back to the bait and showed a very reluctant Bahamut how to thread the worm onto the hook. "Maybe if I weren't afraid of the bottom rusting out in the middle of the ocean." He shook his head. "Nah, I can't leave. Zanarkand is the only home I've ever known. I may not be a guardian or a summoner, but I would arm myself to the teeth to defend it if anything were to happen to it … you know?"

She smiled. "I feel the same way." Removing her hat, she let her hair fall down her shoulders and back, enjoying being free of the simple disguise for a short while.

"Actually, I've been thinking about what you said earlier … about being a guardian and all. Would I have to leave blitzball to train for that?"

"Depends on whether you're training for an official or voluntary position. Are you seriously considering it?"

He shrugged indecisively. "I just remembered one of the guys on the team trains using a method that combines blitzball skills with martial arts. I might ask him about it at our next practice."

Lenne was somewhat skeptical. "But you're doing it because you want to, not because of anything I said, right? Because if your heart isn't in it ..."

"Well, I'd be lying if I said your input didn't influence me, but you didn't talk me into doing something I have no interest in. My teammate says martial arts improved his game, so I was going to ask about it anyway at some point. If you hadn't said anything, I'd still consider cross-training for my game. And, now that you've mentioned it, I do remember seeing the news about the Founders considering magical restrictions for Zanarkand. I just didn't realize it was such a big deal. Maybe I _should_ learn to defend something other than a ball." With the lure ready, Shuyin flashed her a perfunctory smile, then took the rod and the boy to the side of the boat close to the pier.

"Okay, your tackle is ready," he told him. "Usually, on the surf or out in the middle of the water, you have to flick the line and cast it out away from you. But I'm going to let you in on a secret about fishing around these docks. When the weather is hot like this, the fish like to come up at night and hide under the pier."

"I was right?"

"Often, you can drop the line straight down." He demonstrated first. Then, he reeled the line back in and helped the boy hold the rod to do the drop himself. "It helps to pull the line a little … like this." He demonstrated again. "That makes it look like a little munchie swimming around."

"What kind of munchie? Fish and insects move differently in water and would be found at different depths. And how do you know which kind of fish will—"

"You know, skepticism and over-thinking have been known to travel through the line and actually cause worms to spazz with worry. Then the fish see the worm all spastic and start talking to each other about how fake it looks jerking around in the water like that. Before you know it, the fish have moved to another pier, and your worm ends up in therapy because it was on the hook all that time being stared at, rather than being eaten."

Bahamut giggled at Shuyin's warning. "That's not true."

"You don't know that. You're not a worm or a fish. Drop the line, tweak it a little, and be patient. Trust me." When Shuyin felt the kid was prepared to handle his first catch, he backed away to where Lenne stood and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm surprised he didn't ask which species of bug the worm should try to be. You need to get him out of the house more often. Take him to the beach for a weekend. Take him camping or something."

Amused, the singer lifted a brow. "Is that an offer? I'm sure he'd love it."

Shuyin smiled at her repeat attempt to set him up with her little brother, but then he sighed in frustration and turned away, hopping up to sit on the rail. "Dinner tonight was proof that I can't do personal stuff like this without getting … _personal_."

"And you don't want it to get personal because of Koji," she cited his former argument.

"It's not what I want," he admitted. "It's just not my place."

Lenne smiled at his honesty, but then looked slightly troubled as she moved to stand before him. "You know, I've been doing a lot of thinking since I met you."

"Ominous-sounding combination ..."

"I met Koji through a friend who brought him backstage after one of my concerts. My first impression was that he was quiet … handsome ... nice. Since then, I've learned he's also a bit of a poet, though he'd never admit that," she added with a hint of humor. "He's sensitive and passionate about his likes and dislikes, but rarely voices opinions about them … with the exception of blitzball."

"Yep. That's Koji." Shuyin lowered his gaze to the deck and wondered why she was telling him this. He didn't want to hear it.

"But my favorite thing about him is how he makes me feel like a human being when the business of being an icon becomes surreal. I can be myself around him without having to be 'switched on' as a public spectacle. You're a lot like him in that respect. It's one of the reasons I feel comfortable talking to you like this. But what's really cool about you is that you're also a public spectacle, so you know what it's like for me. It's why you wanted me to call you by your name rather than your persona." She placed her hands on his knees and tried to read his expression.

He wanted to tell her he had been thinking the same thing about her. Instead, he cast a glance toward the boy holding his fishing pole. No bites yet. "I don't get where you're going with this."

Lenne sighed heavily. "I need to ask you something, and I need a sincere answer. I need to know why you and Koji are no longer friends."

"You said he already explained that."

"He told me why you argued, but … I don't know what to think anymore." Shaking her head, she folded her arms at her chest. "You are not the person he said you'd be, so I'm having a hard time understanding why he feels so resentful. I want to hear your side of the story."

Shuyin's mouth twisted with caution. "What did he say about me?"

Lenne winced. "Do you want his exact words? Or the polite version?"

"Let me guess. I got all the attention in the sphere pool because I'm Jecht's son, and I played my dad's name to steal the spot on the Abes team. Therefore, I am the scum of the universe."

"Well, that did come up. But he said you were a real player outside of the pool, as well. He said you could have any girl you wanted, but you got mad at him when he became interested in the one girl that refused to date you. He also said you broke his sister's heart by leading her on, even though you were interested in someone else. After the concert, he warned that you would flirt with me if I ever saw you again, so he doesn't want me anywhere near you."

Shuyin shook his head, annoyed. "Okay, I'll admit I'm a flirt. I'll even plead guilty to liking more than one girl at the same time. But he's making it sound like I had a harem, which is hardly the case. And I never _ever_ meant to hurt Kaila. Did he tell you he's the one who set me up with his sister so he could go behind my back for the girl I wanted? He engineered that disaster so that he could get in good with her dad, the owner of the Duggles."

"He still desperately wants a spot on that team."

"So he can face-off against the Abes and me, no doubt. I hate to say it, but he may even be using you to impress them, just like he did with Birana."

"Koji would never use my celebrity as a career move. I have no connections to blitzball, and he often says he wishes I wasn't famous."

"He once told me he hated living in my shadow. If he resented his best friend that much, why would he willingly live in the shadow of a famous girlfriend? Koji doesn't want you hanging around me because he's afraid I'll flirt with you, but he's also afraid I'll tell you how he uses people. I backed away because I don't want to get between you two, but considering how he used Kaila and me, maybe he deserves to be paranoid about me hanging out with his girlfriend. Except, that would be using you to get back at him. And I don't play those kinds of games. … Because I know how much it hurts to be used."

Shuyin sighed and rubbed his face, wishing this topic would just go away. "Look, I honestly don't know whether or not Koji has hidden motives in dating you. You asked for a sincere discussion about the past, not the present. So, I'm just telling you what I know. He's very competitive. He hates being second best. I never _intentionally_ did anything to offend him, but I guess me being who I am is offensive enough. If he finds out you came here tonight … If he finds out we talked about this, or that I kissed you before dinner—"

"Why _did_ you kiss me? … Really."

He tried to think of a poetic answer since she seemed to admire that quality in Koji. But, in truth, only one answer came to mind. "Because I wanted to." He shrugged in defeat and lowered his gaze to the deck. "Lamest excuse ever, I know."

"Very lame," she quietly agreed, mildly amused. "But ... sincere."

Shuyin remembered her comment about not wanting to spoil her appetizer. "Wait. You said he warned you after the concert, but you've come to see me twice since then."

"I guess I needed to make up my own mind about you. I like Koji a lot. He's a sweet, wonderful guy. I was even beginning to think I loved him."

"Don't …" He shook his head. "Don't go there."

"It's true that opposites attract. But common interests bond. And after giving it some thought, I realized Koji and I have nothing in common. We've been together for months now, but I'm still at a loss about how to know him better. Blitzball seems to be his only interest. And, as I said before, I can support that, even if it's not my thing, because I want to support him. But he doesn't return that support. He doesn't care about what I do. He never asks what my goals are or what I like. He makes no effort toward getting to know my family and barely acknowledges my little brother. He has no desire to see the rest of Spira or to try to help people like I do. I couldn't even trust what he was saying about his best friend without talking to you myself. What does that say about how we relate? He's a nice guy, but honestly … I've had more fun being with you."

Shuyin shook his head. "Nope. I'm out. I said I didn't want to get involved because I don't want anyone blaming me for coming between you."

"I'm not blaming you."

"_He will._"

"It's _my choice_ who I enjoy spending time, Shuyin. I am not a piece of property that Koji owns. And I shouldn't have to stay in a relationship that doesn't feel like a good fit. That's not fair to me or him."

Shuyin was hesitant to respond. "Well … If you're sure someone else might be …"

Lenne couldn't help but smile at his caution. "Not to make assumptions, but yeah. I think I'd rather be with someone curious about aeons and familiar with the price of fame. Someone who likes adventure and has a weird sense of humor."

He winced slightly. "It's not that bad, is it?"

"Well, not as bad as your poetry."

He still wasn't convinced. "You're _sure_ you'd rather be with me?"

She nodded. "Being with you … It just feels right."

Shuyin felt excited about that but then felt ashamed for feeling excited. "Then, what do we do?"

Lenne sighed. "It would probably be best if I told Koji the relationship's just not working for me. I'll try to let him down easy."

"At least now he has a valid reason to hate me," he muttered.

She interlaced her fingers in his, paused a moment to admire how their hands looked together, then smiled up at him. "Does that mean I have a valid reason to ask for another birthday kiss?"

His lips pursed as he gave it some thought. "Well, technically, it's my birthday, not yours. I should get to do the asking. Then again, your birthday kisses were kinda sad, so ..."

She giggled at his teasing. "Well, if you're going to be that way about it, I guess I'll have to change how I give birthday kisses to you."

With a mischievous glint in his eye, he gave her a warm smile and released one hand to touch her cheek. Though nothing had truly changed yet, he felt free to admire her in a whole new way now. Guilt still nagged at the back of his mind. But he pushed those thoughts aside and let her tongue slip underneath his, as he tasted her kiss for several heartbeats.

"Shuyin! I think I got a bite!" Bahamut called over his shoulder.

The blitzball player reluctantly looked past Lenne toward her brother and saw the end of the pole bowed toward the dark water. "Bad timing, kid. Very bad timing."

Lenne laughed at the displeasure in his expression and tone.

But, Shuyin hopped down from his perch on the rail and stood behind the boy to show him how to work the catch as Jecht had done so many times with him. "Reel it in steady, but kinda loose. If it gets too tight, the line might snap." As the boy struggled, Shuyin easily became more excited to help. "Keep it up! Pull and reel! That's it!" Leaning over the rail, he helped draw in the line. "Look at that! Woo hoo! Your first fish!" Pulling the wildly flipping animal out of the water, he held up the line for Bahamut to see.

The boy grinned broadly at his accomplishment but didn't seem to know what to do next.

"You have to dance around a little because it was difficult, but you did it anyway. Fish dance! Woo hoo!" He did his little victory dance to demonstrate. Bahamut was too shy to join in, so Shuyin expertly unhooked the fish and held it by its open mouth. Then, he grabbed the hem of the boy's shirt and cinched it tight around his belly before dropping the fish into the shirt's neck. Bahamut laughed out loud and squirmed, trying to avoid contact with the cold, wet fish. He tried pulling away from Shuyin, so the bottom of his shirt would open for the fish to drop out of it, but the blitzball player held tight. "That's it! Fish dance!"

Lenne doubled with laughter at the silly spectacle, then encouraged their little party on the boat deck by dancing with them. "Woo! Fish dance! Go, Baha! Go, fish dance! Go, Shuyin!"

))((

The next game for the Zanarkand Abes was a loss similar to the previous game, but with one difference. This time, the loss was Shuyin's fault. He made one judgment error that set the entire game into a tailspin. His coach wailed on him for it, and his teammates were disgusted. Even fans were upset with him. It was his first experience with how fickle his own fame could be, going from the crest of the wave to the riptide in one play.

After he showered and changed into dry clothing, he exited the back rooms to find Lenne and Bahamut waiting for him among the game stragglers and hecklers. He and Lenne had been contacting or seeing each other daily since his birthday, and he was never more glad to see her than now. Choking back his anger at himself and ignoring the insulting shouts, he strode forward to meet her without a word to any autograph seekers.

Lenne placed her hands on his shoulders. "Do you want to go home tonight, instead of going out?"

"Yeah, but I told Naya and Luperis I'd meet them at the Waterwall."

"Well, then you should go home early after keeping your word." Lenne gave him a kiss and tried to smile. "Don't be too hard on yourself, alright? You did your best, and sometimes that's simply all a person can do."

"And sometimes you totally screw up because your best isn't good enough, and that's unacceptable. One more loss and we slip from the top round for the Crystal Cup tournament." He led the way through the crowd and headed toward the floating bridge beyond the stadium.

Lenne rubbed his arm and slipped her hand into his as they walked. "It's not the end of the world. It's just a game." She tried to sound encouraging, not dismissive.

"To you, maybe. To me, it's rent, fuel, food ... everything! If they cut me from the team because I can't score as many goals as my old man—"

"Shuyin." She silenced him with a stern tone and frown. "If I hear one more word comparing yourself to your dad, so help me, I will push you off of this bridge, and you can swim home alone. He was not perfect. And neither are you. You made a mistake. It happens." Scolding done, her expression softened with worry. "What's done is done. All you can do now is learn from your mistakes and try again."

With a sigh, he drew her into his arms. Closing his eyes, he leaned his forehead against hers, so glad to have her there. Then, he stepped back and tried to smile. "Let's get something to eat." Taking her hand, he led the way to their favorite sports bar and restaurant.

In the diner, at their table, they picked up the menus and scanned for their favorites. "What's a ... flan-flan?" Bahamut asked.

Lenne made a face. "Sounds like a dessert made out of fiend-fiends."

Bahamut made a face in agreement with her but then shrugged and touched the selection anyway. He had been adventurous with holding worms and fishing recently, so why not try a new food.

"Did you talk to Koji yet?" Shuyin asked Lenne as he placed his order.

"No. He had another discouraging day today. There are still no openings in any of Zanarkand's professional leagues, and nobody is willing to take him as an alternate until next season's tryouts. Would you happen to know of any opportunities? It would help if you could put in a good word for him with someone."

"I don't know of any openings, either." Shuyin didn't want to expand on that answer. "But ... it's been a week."

"I know. I need to say something soon because I can't be with him without thinking of you. But I don't want to upset him and make things worse, you know? He's been so depressed as it is."

"So, this is Lenne?" Luperis approached the table and held out a hand to the singer. "I know he brought you to the locker room before, and there was that little meeting in the men's restroom I'm pretending I never saw, but I didn't realize that you until he told us who you were. Clever disguise." He chuckled and gave the bill of her puffy cap a light tap.

Shuyin smiled with buffered pride. "Luperis is a big fan of yours. He's the one that introduced me to your music."

"Really? Outstanding. Nice to meet you." Lenne shook his hand and that of the female player beside him. "And you are?"

"Oh, that's Naya. I don't think she's a fan of your music, but she's pretty cool, anyway." Shuyin gave his teammate an exaggerated wink.

Naya gave his shoulder a light smack. "What are you talking about? I love Lenne's music. You were the only one in the pool who had no clue who she was." The female blitzball player imitated his little dance and voice. "Why is she going out with her guitarist when she could be going out with me? It's not the size of the ship, but the motion of the ocean, baby."

Lenne laughed and looked to Shuyin, easily able to picture him saying and doing that.

"Thanks for that, Naya," he returned.

"Anytime, little dude." She returned his exaggerated wink with two thumbs up.

"Trade autographs with you." Luperis jokingly switched napkins with Lenne.

Lenne chuckled and checked her little brother's expression. Bahamut was quiet, as usual, but he was smiling and happily kicking his feet under his chair. The kid was thrilled to be in the company of three Abes players. "No problem. You want to sit with us? We could push two tables together."

"We're good." Naya sat down beside the boy while Luperis dragged a chair from the table behind them. Turning the back of the chair toward the table, he straddled it and sat down, squeezing himself between Naya and Shuyin at the four-person table.

"Well, if it isn't the almighty Abes!" A man from the bar behind them had turned around in his seat and held up a mostly empty glass in their honor. His speech was slurred, so it clearly wasn't his first glass for the evening. "Whoopie! The team that couldn't tell a venom shot if it kicked them up aside the head! When the Abes retired Zak, they lost the brains of the organization, they did. Haven't seen a game played that terrible since the first game after Jecht disappeared." The drunk stood and approached their table, ignoring their unhappy glares, to confront Shuyin. "By the way, your new shooter isn't half the man that Zak or his father was. Did you not see Toma right under your nose for a pass, boy? Any idiot could have seen there was no way that shot was strong enough to score from halfway across the pool!"

Shuyin swallowed his pride and tried to explain. "Toma was behind me, and I was about to get crunched in a four-way tackle. It looked like the only way to keep the ball was to shoot it."

"Don't feed me that crap." The drunk waved his hand. "You work out your game strategies before you even enter the pool, so you should have known Toma was behind you to receive the pass. You just wanted to be a hotshot by making an impossible goal."

"I looked for him, but I didn't see him. How much time do you think I had to make a decision before being tackled? If I didn't see him, I wasn't going to waste time looking for him and risk losing the ball."

"The kid doesn't have eyes in the back of his head," Naya added. "It was an honest mistake."

"He's got a neck!" the drunk loudly complained. "He could have turned around to look behind him! He was right there!"

"Back off, man," Luperis calmly warned. "You've had a little over the top tonight, and there's always next week."

"No, you back off! I had five thousand gil resting on that game, and that snot-nosed punk, sorry excuse for a right forward, bankrupted me!"

"Well, then you're an idiot for putting five thousand gil on a game," Shuyin retorted, irritated that this man was harassing him.

"What did you just call me? Son, I can remember when you were no bigger than a blitzball yourself. Your dad brought you to the Abes games, and you used to cry anytime someone looked at you sideways. What makes you think you own the show just because your _daddy_ was a legend? It's probably because you were so whiny that he left, and your mama slit her own throat."

In two seconds flat, Shuyin was on his chair, across the table, and on the drunk man. Grabbing the man by the collar, he slammed a fist into his sagging face, then spun and kicked the man's chest, sending him crashing into the table behind him. The table and all of its food spilled to the side. The people sitting around it cried out, jumping away from the fight.

Bahamut's eyes grew wide with fear.

Stunned at the sudden chaos, Lenne stood and physically shielded her little brother.

"If you have a complaint about my game, I'll take your ass in the sphere pool any day! But leave my family out of it!" Shuyin snapped at the drunk.

Lenne reached for his arm, trying to pull him back to his chair.

The drunken man clutched his chest where he'd been kicked. "What are you trying to do? Kill me?" He grabbed a knife from the table and whipped it toward Shuyin.

The drunk's aim was off, and Shuyin could have dodged, but he remembered who was behind him, stepped in front of the knife, and raised an arm to block it. "Lenne!"

She had already cast a magical shield around herself and her brother to deflect any makeshift missiles.

Growling under his breath, Shuyin started to lunge at the drunk again, but Naya and Luperis caught the back of his shirt and hooked his arms to restrain him. "You better thank your lucky stars that knife didn't hit them!"

"He's threatening to kill me!" The drunk complained to the whole restaurant.

"Knock it off, man, or you're going to end up in jail!" Luperis glared at their youngest team member. "Now, we're going to walk out of here without hitting anyone else, understand?"

Naya moved between Shuyin and the drunken man, ready to intercept any further attacks from either one of them.

Shuyin looked over his shoulder toward Lenne and Bahamut and forced himself to calm down. Ashamed of having lost control in front of them, but still furious about the drunk's personal slurs, he snapped free from Luperis and stormed out of the restaurant on his own.

"Um ... put it on the tab for the Abes," Naya told the restaurant manager, who had come to gawk at the damage. Then she and Luperis followed Shuyin.

Lenne dropped her magic shield and hurried Bahamut out behind them.

In the parking lot, Naya cornered Shuyin and shoved his shoulder so hard that it spun him around to face her. "What the hell is the matter with you?" The woman that had calmed his nerves before their first game now looked as if she were about to rip his internal organs out through his nose. "As long as you are a member of the Abes, you will not lose your cool with the fans like that! No matter how obnoxious they get, you keep your hands and your opinions to yourself! Everything you did tonight is going affect the rest of the team! The headlines won't care about the game now because everyone will be talking about you! Our pay might be docked to pay for your damages! We might even have to apologize to that bastard when simply letting him speak his mind and pointing him back to his drink would have sufficed!"

"He threw a knife at me!"

"I don't care if he threw a grenade! You don't hit the fans!"

Naya's anger surprised him, but she was right. He had blown it again, big time. Shuyin fought to control his racing heart. "I'm sorry, okay? ... I'm sorry."

"Damn right, you're sorry," Luperis groused. The large, dark-skinned man was angry, too, but instead of adding more fuel to the fire, he placed his hands on Shuyin's shoulders as if to ground him. "You'll be even sorrier when you have to face the big boys in the office tomorrow. Because not even Jecht can help your ass get MVP now. But there's nothing you can do to take it back, so go home and sleep it off before you make matters worse," he advised before releasing him.

Shuyin knew his teammates had saved his skin. Lowering his gaze, he nodded in reluctant agreement. Lenne came forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest. He could still hear his angry heart pounding in his head, but as she held him, his internal storm calmed. Already, she was such a stabilizing force that he wondered how he ever lived without her. Nodding one more time in apology to his teammates, he slipped an arm across Lenne's shoulders, placed a hand on Bahamut's head, and let them walk him home.


	13. Chapter 13: Tough Choices

Chapter 13: Tough Choices

When they arrived back at the houseboat, Shuyin went straight to the kitchen freezer and grabbed an ice pack for his throbbing hand. "I never realized the human jaw was so hard," he grumped and tried to flex his fingers.

Lenne sighed and gave his hand a brief exam. "Well, nothing seems to be broken, but a fracture is possible. Do you want me to …"

"Nah, I kinda deserve to feel this right now."

Bahamut sat down in a chair at the table. "I'm hungry."

"We left without dinner, didn't we." Lenne tapped her brother's shoulder. "Come on. Let's take you home and get you something to eat." As the boy stood, she gave the distraught blitzball player a brief kiss. "I'll come by to check on you later, okay?"

He nodded and watched them leave. Then, he stood and took his ice pack with him down the short, narrow stairs to the boat's bathroom. There was barely enough room to turn around in the small cubical because of the large, deep soaking tub, but it had been Jecht's favorite amenity—other than his beers—when he was tired and sore after games. Now, following in his father's footsteps, Shuyin turned on the hot water and jets, hoping it would bring relief to him as well. He checked his hand once more as the tub filled, then stripped down and climbed into the steaming, deep water. Letting his head fall back against the wall, he tried hard not to think about the consequences of tonight that would plague him tomorrow.

Sinking low until the water line came to his chin, he vaguely wondered if this was the kind of nonsense that drove his father to drink. Maybe Jecht had just given up one day and walked into the ocean to never come back. No, that was the kind of thinking that had taken his mother. His father wouldn't have quit life the way his mother did. Determined not to become a victim of his own thoughts and a drunken stranger's crass comments, Shuyin splashed some of the hot water on his face and tried to refocus on what he could do differently in the next game. If he could win the next game, everything would be better again.

About thirty minutes later, there was a knock at the houseboat's front door.

Reluctant to climb out of the soothing water, he turned off the jets, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around his waist. Heading up the short, narrow steps, he wondered who would be visiting at this hour of the night. The Zanarkand city guard, come to arrest him for assault charges? The drunk following him home to make more trouble? The coach and team big-wigs came here to fire him already? Steadying his nerves, he reached for the handle and pulled it open.

Lenne blinked at him in pleasant surprise. "Wow. The steamy-man-wrapped-in-nothing-but-a-towel-look really works for you. And to think most girls only get flowers and chocolates."

A hint of a sad smile touched his lips as he stepped aside to let her in.

"And you're passing up a perfectly good chance to flirt with that? Now I'm really concerned." She removed and set aside her shoes, walking past him and allowing him to close the door on the night bugs attracted to the interior light. "Have you already eaten? I can fix you something while you finish your bath."

"I'm not very hungry. You came back?"

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"I thought you meant tomorrow."

"Why would I wait until tomorrow, if you're upset tonight?"

"I'm surprised you came back at all. I've never screwed up this bad before."

"I think that man's comments took all of us by surprise. Your reaction may not have been the best way to handle it, but it certainly was very understandable. And I think everyone who witnessed the incident would agree."

"Is your brother okay? I didn't mean to freak him out or anything."

"He's fine. He even explained what happened to Mom while she fixed him a sandwich, so he seems to have a good grasp on what set you off. He said he's sorry that drunk said hurtful things to you, and he couldn't blame you for being angry." She sifted Shuyin's bangs through her fingers so that she could clearly see his eyes. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know. I keep thinking about it … thinking about why my parents left. I'm afraid I'm beginning to understand them a little. But I don't want to do anything stupid. I could use some company," he admitted, knowing that would have sounded like a ploy if he hadn't been so depressed.

"In the bath, or after it?" she asked with amusement.

He paused at the unexpected options. "Both?"

She laughed lightly. "Well, at least that sounds more like your usual fare."

A wan smile returned, but then he shrugged it off. "Seriously, it's enough for you to just be here. The silence is very heavy right now … if you know what I mean." He checked the knuckles on his sore hand.

"I thought it might be." She brushed away a few water droplets beading on his shoulders. Then, she took his injured hand and cast a small cure spell for it.

"Thanks." He could flex his fingers with ease now.

She gave the healed hand a pat. "Perhaps, you should come with me. I know something that might help." Tugging his hand, she coaxed him to the front door.

"Lenne, I'm in a towel," he reminded her but allowed himself to be led outside.

"Yeah, you might want to hold onto that because it's a little breezy tonight." She led him to the top deck of the houseboat.

"A little breezy? I'm wet, so this is cold, and I've got a definite draft situation going on here."

She chuckled at his complaints. "Okay. I can take care of that. Wait right here." She went back inside and came out a few minutes later with the blanket from his bed. Draping it around his shoulders and securing it at his chest, she sat down on the deck and patted the space beside her. "Come on. You'll like this. I promise."

Suspicious, but curious to see where she was going with this crazy idea, Shuyin sighed, shifted his blanket closer around himself, and sat down on the deck where she indicated. "This isn't another trick, like the foot-tapping thing, is it? Did you hide my clothes while getting the blanket?"

"No, but that sounds like fun, too." Amused at his paranoia, she moved behind him, leaned back against the rail post, and drew his shoulders back against her. "Scoot back and look up."

He did so, and as he reclined against her chest, she wrapped her arms over the blanket to keep him warm in the cool night air. Only when he lifted his chin did he realize what she was doing. Countless stars sparkled overhead in the clear night sky.

"You said counting stars helped you unwind, right?"

He couldn't believe she remembered.

"I've heard you can see even more on the open sea."

"The boat's in no condition to go out that far."

"Well, maybe it's time to work on that. How long has it been since you took it somewhere else?"

"A long, long time."

"Well, I don't know anything about boat maintenance, but I'm willing to help if you need an extra hand." She rested her chin on top of his head. "If nothing else, I can summon an aeon to fly us back if it sinks."

He smirked at the idea. "If the boat sinks, I can swim. If a flying dead thing drops me, all I can do is fall. At least the boat still has a little life left in it," he sardonically added. The sky was absolutely beautiful, but he could still feel dark thoughts on the edge of his conscience. He sighed, hesitant to speak what was on his mind now. "Can you stay ... for a while?"

"As long as you need," she agreed. "I don't have my guitar with me, but I just thought of a song you might like. Want to hear it?"

He tilted his chin to look over his shoulder at her, curious.

Lenne cleared her throat and began to softly hum and sing a gentle tune.

_ "Whispers from a childhood long ago_

_ Cobwebs in the mind's distant attic corners_

_ How long will you run to escape your memories?_

_ How far, how far away?_

_ Reach out your arms to me._

_ Happiness is near._

_ Don't give up in fear._

_ Forgive and be forgiven._

_ When you are not yourself_

_ Drowned in oceans deep_

_ Draw close to me._

_ Share your pain with me._

_ Heal ... and be healed._

_ Believe_

_ In me_

_ I will be here ... for you._

_ You're eternally protected, a cherished treasure to my heart._

_ Alive ... and beautiful, your smile brings hope to me._

_ Don't feel lost. Come into my light and share your precious soul with me._

_ Restless spirit, stay beside me. Love and be loved forever._

_ Believe in me, and I will be here for you._

_ Believe in me, and I will be here for you._

_ Share your soul with me, smile, and be loved forever._

_ Share your soul with me, smile, and be loved forever._

_ La-la-la-la-la_

_ La-la-la-la-la-la-la ..."_

As Lenne repeated the song, the soft and gentle tune rose in volume and strength. And though she tapped her foot to an orchestra heard only in her head, her voice, uncluttered by back-up vocals or instruments, conveyed a symphony of warmth.

Shuyin slipped a hand from beneath the blanket to entwine his fingers in hers. Letting his head rest against her collar bone, he looked up at the stars once more. Despite everything that had happened that day, at that moment, he felt nothing but peace.

))((

The next morning, when Shuyin woke in his bed, Lenne was still nestled against him, sleeping beneath his arm. He closed his eyes for a moment, wishing he could find an excuse not to go to training, but then he opened them to see the clock tick down one more minute until the alarm was set to beep. Resigned to his fate, he rose on one elbow and reached over her to turn off the alarm before it woke her. Gently sweeping her hair away from her neck, he smoothed it over the pillow and kissed her shoulder. Then, trying to be quiet, he left his bed to dress in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Picking up his socks, sneakers, and key-card, he took one last look at her, smiled to himself, and slipped out of the room.

Stopping at the small table near the hall, he wrote a note for her and snickered as he signed it. Then, he dropped the key-card on top of the paper and pulled the table in front of the door, so she wouldn't miss it upon waking. Finally, he headed into the kitchen to grab an orange for breakfast and left the houseboat to head to the pool.

))((

When Lenne woke about an hour later, she stretched, sat up, and looked around the empty room. "Shuyin?"

Remembering he had an early practice and realizing she was probably alone, she pulled the blanket off of the bed to wrap around her cold shoulders and padded to the bedroom door. As soon as she opened it, she nearly stumbled into the small table barricade, but spotted the note and lifted it to read.

_ "Gone to training. Stay as long as you like. My heart and my home are yours. Lock up when you leave. Bring the key-card to the pool. If there's anything left of me after my ass-chewing session with the coach, I'll see you later tonight. Love, Shuyin."_

She read it a few more times, smiling before she realized her thumb was covering a portion of something. "'P.S.,'" she read aloud. "'See? I can write nice notes, too.'" But it had another doodle of a monkey spanking itself beside the lettering. Smirking at his foolishness, she lifted the key-card and bumped the small table out of her way. After a short shower and a small breakfast, she locked the houseboat door behind her and headed to the pool.

))((

When Lenne arrived at the arena and asked to see Shuyin, she was directed to the practice pool. But upon entering and asking about him, she was directed to the offices. Knowing this meant he was still enduring some form of lecture or punishment for what happened last night, Lenne decided to stay in the practice pool and wait for his return. Sitting on one of the benches, she removed her sunglasses and hat to watch the rest of his teammates run through their drills. They were waiting for the return of their coach to tackle the problems that caused last night's game loss. Unfortunately, Shuyin was going to be part of that lecture, as well.

Having nothing better to do, she pulled out a music sphere and plugged in her headphones. Then she retrieved her tablet from her purse and decided to write a new song—perhaps one about Shuyin. She smiled, thinking about everything they did last night and unhooked the accompanying pen to write some test lyrics. He was such a minefield of potential when it came to poetic phrases. But thinking of poetry also made her think of Koji.

Neither of them mentioned him last night after Shuyin's uncomfortable reminder at dinner about the passage of time. In her mind, she had already broken off that relationship and put it behind her. But in reality, it was still being delayed. She scratched out what she had written and tried a new approach, but her thoughts of being with Shuyin circled back to Koji. Finally, with a groan, she switched on her com sphere, linking to his apartment. After last night, she could no longer wait for good news to spare Koji's feelings. She had to end it today.

"Hey," he greeted her with a morose tone and sigh, looking like he just rolled out of bed.

She offered a pleasant smile anyway. "Hey, are you busy today?"

"Well, since all positions in Zanarkand are filled, I was thinking about going to Luca tomorrow to see if they have any current openings. I've heard they're trying to build up some leagues between the various cities at the southern end of Spira, too. They couldn't possibly have anything as good as Zanarkand, but it would be better than nothing, I suppose."

She knocked her knees together and studied a manicured nail as she waited to be invited to tag along, but when the offer didn't come, Lenne sighed and reminded herself why she called. "Well, I was wondering if you were free for dinner tonight, my treat."

Koji shook his head. "I'm not really in the mood to go out."

"Then, maybe you'd rather come over to my place?"

"Actually, I need to pack if I'm going to be traveling for a bit. You could come here if you want."

Just then, a rather defeated-looking Shuyin entered the pool area, spotted Lenne, and came toward her before talking about the ordeal with his teammates.

Knowing the com sphere would transmit images of anything near her, she quickly held up a hand to cue Shuyin to stay away. "No. If your family's there, we won't be able to talk about … things." She tried not to wince, knowing that sounded bad. "Please. Just come to my place for dinner. Okay? You can tell me all about blitzball prospects in Luca and elsewhere."

Shuyin paused beyond the sphere's range but gave her a puzzled frown.

"Okay," Koji answered. "Look, I'm … I'm sorry I haven't been lively company lately. I know you're probably feeling a little neglected. I'll make it up to you tonight, okay? I have an idea."

"No, you don't need to do anything special. Really."

"I insist." He smiled. "But it's going to be a surprise, so don't ask any questions and spoil it."

Lenne tried to smile and look happy. "Okay, I have to go now. I'll see you at my place for dinner."

"I'll be there."

Shuyin's frown deepened as she cut the connection, tucked the sphere back into her purse, and removed her headphones. "You haven't told him yet. Have you?" he guessed, based on her half of the conversation.

"I will tonight. I can't keep waiting for Koji's luck to turn around, and he's going to Luca tomorrow, so I need to tell him before he leaves. He sleeps all day and doesn't eat much. I'm worried about him, but … I guess it can't be helped now, can it?" She put away the tablet and sphere, then stood to greet him with a hug. "How'd it go?" she asked, returning his key-card.

He shook his head, discouraged. "It went. They said I cracked a couple of the drunk bastard's ribs, but he's not pressing charges because of too many witnesses saying he provoked the whole thing and some pay-off deal drawn up by the Abes' legal department. However, I do have to 'officially' apologize to him and the restaurant. I've been fined half of my next paycheck, and I have to pay for any damages and medical bills that insurance won't cover. I have to prepare a statement for the press in response to what happened, but I'm restricted from discussing it beyond that." Shuyin tried to think. "Oh yeah, and I got the 'When your dad was on this team ...' lecture after being threatened with suspension without pay if I do it again." He flashed an apologetic glance for venting, but then intentionally changed the subject. "I'm surprised you stayed last night."

"I'm glad I did." She smiled to reassure him she meant that.

He looked relieved to hear it. "Listen … I need to get away from all this for a little while. Clear my head." He raked a finger across the fringe at the bottom of her handkerchief-style shirt. "How would you like to go camping this weekend? You can even bring your little brother."

"Really?" Lenne grinned with anticipation. "But you have a game this weekend, don't you?"

"We could leave the next day. I haven't missed any training days yet, so I can take a day off from that."

"Sounds like fun. Of course, you realize my mother's going to want to meet you before giving you permission to drag my little brother out in the middle of nowhere."

Shuyin winced. "Just don't let her watch the news for about two weeks. I don't want her thinking I'm an idiot before she even meets me."

"Oh, she already thinks you're an idiot." She draped her arms around his neck. "She saw the notes you wrote to me."

"_What?_" He put a hand to his forehead. "What'd you show her those for?"

"Bahamut used them to ask permission to go to the game, but I showed them to her again to ask her opinion about whether she thought you were worth the risk."

"Mothers don't appreciate snogging jokes and spanking monkeys, Lenne."

"My mother is a very wise woman. I trust her opinions immensely when I have to make important decisions."

"And what did she say?"

"She thinks you're an idiot."

He snorted and shook his head in defeat.

"However, she also thinks that since you went through all that trouble to make Bahamut happy—and since he seems to think a lot of you, too—that you can't be too terribly bad. She said sometimes you have to be willing to give up a few good-fitting pairs of shoes to afford one great-fitting pair because comfort is important on your journey through life."

He rested his hands at her waist. "Your mother compared me to a pair of shoes."

"She likes to shop, so her analogies tend to include clothing."

"Ah. Well, at least you get it honestly." He indicated her funky fashion preferences by tugging on one of the fringes of her shirt and looked down at her miniskirt and ribbon-wrapped heels.

Lenne returned a sly smile. "She also said something about blitzball players, but I'll wait until you're not afraid of her anymore to spring that one on you."

"Well, in that case, _definitely_ don't let her watch the news." He glanced toward his teammates and the practice pool. "I'd better swim my laps before I get chewed out again. I'll see you tonight, okay?"

"Not tonight." With a pout, she shook her head. "I don't know what to expect after dinner with Koji. I don't want to cut and run on him if he doesn't take it well."

Shuyin nodded in understanding and gave her a parting kiss and then pulled away from her embrace to slip his key-card into the tablet he carried. After setting it on the bench, he waved to her once more before diving into the pool.

Lenne sighed, wishing she could stay here all day watching Shuyin play blitzball. His moves in the water were nothing short of fascinating, and though she hated to admit it, she was starting to like the unpredictable, fast-paced action of the sport. It was ironic that it took Shuyin to help her understand Koji's desire to play professionally, but the few games she had seen Koji play were nothing like the exuberant matches Shuyin threw himself into. With that in mind, she made herself turn for the door and tried to think of what to say to Koji tonight.

))((

A few days later, Shuyin sat at his keyboard, composing a song he had been humming to himself during training when he heard a knock on the front door of his houseboat. He quickly wrote down the last two notes and played the previous bar one more time to see how they sounded together. The knock at the door repeated. "Just a minute!" With a snort at the disturbance, he stood to answer the call.

On the other side of the door, Koji waited with a brooding expression, hands in pockets. "Busy?"

Uttering a mental curse, Shuyin suspected he knew the purpose of this visit, but he stepped aside to invite him inside.

Koji entered the houseboat for the first time in over half a year and looked around as his former best friend shut the door behind him. "Lenne broke up with me a few days ago. Three guesses why."

"Me, me, and ... me?" Shuyin heard from Lenne the night she broke the news to Koji. She said he was very resistant to letting her go, but that Shuyin's name didn't come into the conversation at all. So the fact that Koji was here now meant he had figured it out anyway. Denial was pointless.

Koji confronted him directly. "I just want to know one thing. Did you hook up with her before or after she broke up with me?"

Shuyin averted his gaze, unable to give Koji the answer he wanted to hear.

"_Before _or _after?_" Koji demanded.

"Before," Shuyin quietly admitted.

Koji slammed his fist into Shuyin's face, shoving him back a couple of steps. But he kept his distance after that, though he continued to seethe with hurt and anger.

Shuyin dabbed at the blood in the corner of his throbbing, busted lip, but he made no move to fight back.

"This is payback for that incident with Birana, isn't it?"

There it was—the card Shuyin had been expecting him to play. "No."

"Then why didn't you back off?" Koji angrily demanded. "That's what you promised you would do if you _knew_ I was interested in someone!"

"I _did_! I walked away more than once, but she kept coming back to me!" Shuyin reminded himself to stay calm. He didn't mean to make it sound like her fault, and he didn't need another fight hitting the headlines, especially not one that would hurt her. "I wanted her to keep coming back. Hit me again if it makes you feel better, but I can't walk away from her anymore. I haven't known her as long as you have, but she already means more to me than anyone I've ever met."

Koji snorted, shook his head, and laughed. "You know what? I almost believe you." With two fingers, he drew a slip of paper from his pocket.

Shuyin found the laughter and calm in Koji's behavior more disturbing than the fact that he'd hit him, but he snatched the note and opened it. It was the note he had left for Lenne the morning after she stayed with him. "Where did you get this?"

"Her nightstand drawer."

Shuyin was appalled. "Does she know that you went through her things?"

"_You're_ the one having an affair with my girlfriend. Don't look at me like I'm the low-life here."

"_Girlfriend_, not wife," Shuyin angrily corrected. "She's free to choose who she wants."

"You knew how I felt about her!"

As soon as Koji said it, Shuyin recognized his own argument concerning Birana. He could tell Koji recognized it, too.

"Everything was fine until you showed up. The minute I saw you at the concert, I knew you would try something like this," Koji continued. "I even warned her, so she wouldn't fall for it."

"This isn't some grand scheme to get you back. Neither of us wanted to hurt you, Koji. If I'd wanted to hurt you, I would have called you after the first kiss." Again, the irony of what happened with Birana hung thick in the air. "She delayed telling you because she didn't want to hurt your feelings when you were already down, not because we were trying to play you."

"When she broke up with me, I asked if there was someone else. She refused to answer, so I _knew_ it was you. When she left the room, it was just a matter of knowing where to look for the evidence. How do you do it, Shu? How do you get people to fall at your feet and worship you like that? Did you know that Kaila actually has an Abes poster of you on her bedroom wall? She got it at one of your games, but I'll bet you didn't even notice her in the crowd among all the other girls."

Shuyin's anger softened. "If Kaila really wants to see me again, tell her to come to the doors at the back where the locker rooms are. I sign autographs there before and after games. I'll be more than happy to pull her inside for a private talk if she has anything to say to me. I never got to apologize to her like I wanted to."

"Well, don't count on her believing that. She's seen the news about your little barroom brawl, and I already told her that Lenne broke up with me because of you. She thinks you're a class-A jerk now, yet she still misses you. Explain that to me because it defies logic. It's as if you've got some kind of charm spell that allows you to get under people's skin. You can make them do whatever you want, and when they can't handle you anymore, they go insane."

Shuyin didn't know whether to be hurt or angry at that dig. "At least I don't use people to further my own success! Who does Lenne know that you want to meet? What use is she to you?"

"I loved Lenne! I had no intention of using her! I learned my lesson about using people back in high school. You, apparently, didn't … _Jecht, Jr_. Or you wouldn't have dropped names and status to start seeing my girlfriend behind my back!"

"I didn't!" Shuyin scowled at the accusation.

"You didn't let her kid brother into a game with a special seat to win her over?"

"That had nothing to do with her. I didn't even know who she was!"

"Some people have all the luck, right? Why do you have all the luck, Shu? It doesn't matter if I study hard, score higher, obey the rules, and be nice to the girl because, in the end, you will _always_ get what _I_ want. Nothing's changed since we were kids. You will always be the one to get the strawberry candy." He took a step closer to Shuyin. "In fact, it's beginning to look like the only way for me to get what I want ... is to get rid of you."

Shuyin backed away with a sinking feeling in his gut. "Koji, this kind of jealousy—"

"Jealousy?" Koji gave another strange chuckle. "_Jealous_ doesn't begin to describe how I feel about you anymore, Shuyin. When we were kids, I was jealous of the attention you got. Now, I'm just tired of you ruining my life." He drew a gun from his pocket, unlocked the safety, and pointed it at his former best friend.

Shocked, but not waiting to see if Koji was bluffing, Shuyin turned and ran down the stairs to the lower level, just missing the shot that was fired at him. Running to his parents' bedroom, he threw open the closet and dug out the only weapon he knew the boat had: his father's longsword. But what good was a sword against bullets? Frantically looking for something else to aid his situation, he spotted the chin-up bar his father installed in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs.

As Koji came down the stairs, Shuyin jumped up, caught the bar, and pulled himself high enough to punch both feet toward the gun, kicking his former friend backward.

Koji landed against the wall but didn't drop the gun. Instead, as Shuyin dropped to the floor, he fired another shot. His quick reaction meant lousy aim, but the bullet pierced Shuyin's arm.

Angry and frightened, Shuyin swung the heavy sword and hit the gun again, this time sending it sliding across the floor, under the bed. But the strike also opened a gash in Koji's chest.

Stunned, Koji looked down at the blood on his shirt and hand. "You cut me? You bastard, you actually cut me!"

"Because you pulled a gun on me! You drew first blood! Stop doing this, man! Stop comparing yourself to me before you make yourself crazy! I let you hit me because I know I deserved it, but I am _not_ going to stand still while you point a damn gun at my head!" Shuyin paused, attempting to calm himself and Koji. "Look, I know you're upset, but can't we just talk about this? We can leave the weapons here and go upstairs. I'm willing to pretend this never happened as long as we call it even, and it never happens again, okay? Deal?" Flipping the sword in his hand, he pointed the hilt, instead of the blade, at his former friend.

"Give Lenne back to me." Koji's expression softened with his request, revealing his heartache. "You have everything. I have nothing except her."

Shuyin felt bad that he had been wrong about Koji's intentions toward Lenne, but he couldn't do anything to change the situation. "Lenne is a human being, not a trophy. I can't give her back when it was her choice to walk away. You've got other people, though. You've got a good family. You've got a good record. How can you say you have nothing when you're successful at everything you put your mind to? I know you'll make it to the professional league eventually. It's just a question of timing."

Koji gritted his teeth and charged Shuyin in a head-on tackle. Shuyin lost his grip on the sword and dropped it, but he responded to the familiar move by elbowing, twisting, and finally kicking his way free.

Running up the stairs and out the front door, Shuyin dove over the side of the boat into the dark, cold water of the bay. He swam as hard as he could, thinking it would be safer to fight unarmed on the beach or a pier.

Koji dove into the water and swam after him with strokes just as powerful. Catching Shuyin's ankle, Koji pulled him back. The blitzball players grappled against one another underwater, both of them equal in strength and endurance to do such a thing. But there was one significant difference between the ocean and the sphere pool: _fiends_.

Aroused by the scent of blood and the motion of their struggle, a giant water fiend rose from the graves below the floating city. Neither of them saw it until multiple long tentacles lashed out at them like electric whips. A sharp jolt stung Shuyin's back, so he released Koji to flee for his life. Pausing once, he looked back to see if Koji was following.

Koji was caught by the monster.

Panicked, Shuyin started to swim back to his friend, but he had no weapon to turn the odds in their favor. This was a fight neither of them could win. So, making a horrible decision, Shuyin swam for the surface.

Bursting out of the water as if setting up for a sphere shot, Shuyin let his momentum carry him high enough to twist in mid-air and get a look at the pier. It was within reach, but his legs buckled under the jarring landing, and he tumbled across the concrete surface, scraping his elbows and knees. Gasping for breath, he crawled to the edge of the pier and scanned the water. "Koji!"

There was no response.

Clutching his gunshot wound, which, like the scrapes, burned with exposure to the saltwater, Shuyin pulled himself to his feet near a post and moved down the pier. "Koji!" he called again. But he already knew the outcome of the encounter below. Exhausted from the fight and the swim, Shuyin bent over the post and buried his face in his arm to grieve yet another loss in his life. This time, he lost a brother. How was he ever going to tell Lenne? What was he going to tell Kaila?


	14. Chapter 14: First Love

Chapter 14: First Love

When Kaila answered the door, she was stunned, not only by Shuyin's presence but by his appearance. Except for being barefoot, he looked as if he had been swimming fully clothed. His eyes were bloodshot, and not just from saltwater exposure. He had been crying. Nothing in the world was sadder to Kaila than seeing Shuyin cry. It was what had drawn her to him the first time they met, and it was what confirmed that his heart was breaking now. The bicep of his left arm had been hastily wrapped in a blood-stained, gauze bandage. His lip was cut and swollen, and his knees were scraped raw. "Shuyin? Oh my gosh! What are you doing here?" She invited him inside, but as he walked past, her attention was drawn to the gaping hole in the back of his shirt, torn from shoulder to hem. The shirt was also stained with blood, and large, red welts marked the skin underneath.

Shuyin looked toward Koji's bedroom, out of habit. "Are your parents home?" he quietly asked.

"Not at the moment. And if you came to see Koji, he's not in right now, either."

"I know." His eyes closed as he struggled to control a wave of emotion that looked as if it would break him at any moment.

"What happened? Do you need someone to take you to a healer?"

He shook his head. "Koji ..." Pausing, he tried to hold back the wave again. "We got into a fight and this water fiend ... It was the biggest fiend I've ever seen." Sniffling, he looked down at the pillowcase-wrapped bundle in his hands and passed it to her.

Kaila opened it to see a blood-stained handgun. Dread crept over her, head to toe. "Shu? Where is Koji?"

He shivered but lifted his arm to show her the bullet wound. "He shot me, Kaila. He _shot_ me, and I jumped into the water to get away. But he followed me. And when the fiend came out of nowhere, he couldn't escape."

Kaila cupped a hand to her mouth and shook her head in denial, though she knew he was telling the truth. Breaking into tears, she collapsed.

))((

Shuyin caught Kaila as she fell to her knees. Drawing her into his arms, he supported her grief the same way she held him when he found his mother's body on the kitchen floor. A tight fist clutched the back of his torn shirt, and her shoulders shook with sobs for what seemed like an eternity. Shuyin felt responsible for each tear that fell. He thought he had worked past most of his own grief with the numbness that had settled over him while he was treating his arm with the first-aid kit and cleaning up the blood on the bedroom floor. But seeing Kaila fall apart like this brought everything back.

When Kaila did finally pull away to wipe her tears, new ones continued to fall. "Please stay. Mom and Dad will want to talk to you."

He gave a somber nod.

Kaila placed the gun on the table, still inside the pillowcase. Then she excused herself to the kitchen to contact her parents and give them the news.

Shuyin wiped a hand over his eyes as he stood and crossed the living room where he and Koji used to play games. In the hall, rounding the corner, he caught a glimpse of Kaila's room directly to his left. A small Abes poster of himself in mid-arc doing a sphere shot graced her wall, and he remembered the day he first did that jump on the playground. Kaila had been so proud of him. Koji had called him on a technical imperfection. Koji had been right, of course, but Shuyin responded with a challenge—a challenge he won.

With a heavy sigh and a heavier heart, Shuyin turned to his right and entered Koji's bedroom. So many childhood memories had taken place here. Posters and pennants of all the major league blitzball teams that Koji collected still decorated the walls, but the various swimsuit-model posters that went up during high school had been taken down. Pictures of Lenne scattered around the room had taken their place. Lifting a couple's photo in a holographic cube on the dresser, Shuyin backed into the wall behind him and slid down to the floor. The lacerated welts on his back stung like crazy, but that too was part of the price paid for one kiss.

Kaila found him slouched against the wall on the floor of Koji's room like that. "My parents are on their way home." Still shedding new, silent tears, she knelt before him and draped a large towel over his shoulders and head. "Your back looks pretty bad."

"It had tentacles that burned with magic."

"Did Koji ... drown, or was he …" She couldn't choke out the rest of the question.

Shuyin dug his toes into the luxurious carpet as he replayed the attack in his mind. The way his friend was being thrown around like a rag doll, he was sure Koji's lungs had been crushed first. He didn't want to think about what could have happened after that. "He drowned."

Kaila tried to find comfort in that. Death-by-drowning was better than the alternatives. "Your fight ... It was because of Lenne, wasn't it?" she asked with a sniffle, noting the holographic cube in his hands.

He reluctantly nodded.

"Koji was planning on asking her to marry him as soon as he got a job with a blitzball team so it wouldn't look like he was mooching off of her celebrity status as a singer."

Shuyin absorbed that news as if he'd been shot a second time. The tears broke through the numbness again and trickled down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Kaila. I didn't mean for anything like this to happen. Koji was my brother, too, you know?"

"I know. It may not seem like it recently, but he felt the same way about you. It's why he had sibling rivalry issues with you. He thought the world of you, but … it was hard for him, always being 'Shuyin's friend' but never _Koji_. I understand his frustration to some extent because I was always just 'Koji's sister' to you, never truly Kaila. He's been upset with you in the past, but he's never talked about hurting you. I guess he was so stressed this time that he just … snapped."

"You probably hate me more than ever now."

Kaila sadly shook her head. "I don't hate you, Shu. I don't always like what you do, but there will always be a place in my heart for you."

He looked up at her, utterly bewildered, as Koji's last words about her rang true. "How can you forgive me after something like this? This is much worse than what happened the night of the dance."

"This isn't your fault."

He shook his head in adamant disagreement. "How can you say that? I promised him I'd back off, but then I kissed her anyway! I'm the one that chose to dive into the water! And I didn't even try to save him from the fiend because I didn't think I could!"

"You stole the heart of someone he loved, but if Koji took a gun to your house, how can this be your fault? You're reckless, Shuyin, but you've never been vengeful."

"That's not what Koji said."

"That's because Koji felt guilty about what he did to us the night of the dance."

"If he felt guilty about that, why did he tell Lenne all that crap about me?"

"Because that's how he experienced it, and he was afraid of losing her to you."

Shuyin winced and looked away in disgust.

"You have a powerful personality, Shu. It's a bit overwhelming sometimes to those of us who are a little more … subdued. But you've never been tainted with horrible intentions to hurt people on purpose. Deep down, Koji knew that. But he always had to compete with you—_always_. He knew he could never match your strength of spirit, so he took his frustrations out on you. Don't you see? He was jealous because he couldn't find a real reason to hate you."

Shuyin shivered again and rubbed the towel over his wet head, pulling it around his shoulders, careful not to cause further pain for his back and arm.

"You know, you taught both of us something very important the night of that dance. Even if Koji's guilt made his jealousy worse, you taught him to be sincere with people. He apologized to me for setting us up, and I think he even apologized to Birana. I assumed he apologized to you, too, or he wouldn't have tried to drag me to the boat to talk to you again. After that, he was careful to keep his relationship with Lenne separate from his career goals. Perhaps he was too careful to separate them and ended up shutting her out."

Shuyin sniffled. "She did say she felt distant—that she would have called it off with or without me."

Kaila nodded in sad agreement. "You can't make someone love you. That's what you taught _me_ that night. I learned the difference between love and obsession. Love shouldn't make you lose yourself to someone else." She smiled through her tears. "I suffered through twelve years of attitude, pranks, and all other kinds of insulting nonsense to get just one kiss from you." Kaila gave a half-hearted smirk and sniffled. "And the sad thing is, I thought that's what you're supposed to do when you love someone—you stick by them no matter what, no matter how much they hurt you."

Shuyin's brows rose in guilt. "I swear I didn't know. I never meant to hurt you."

"I know. You're … kinda thick in the subtle hints department sometimes." She smiled lightly. "And we were kids through most of it. Kids pick on each other all the time. I don't know why I expected things to suddenly change between us as we got older."

He couldn't help but think of his own parents. "My mom used to stick by my old man, even when he hurt her. She made all kinds of excuses for his behavior, even after he abandoned us. But she said she stayed because she loved him."

Kaila shook her head. "That's not love. It's an obsession." She wiped a tear and sniffled. "No disrespect to your mother, but that's why they say love is blind. When you're obsessed with someone, you see only what you want to see. You know? Real love isn't self-destructive. And it isn't possessive. It's protective, even if it means letting go to prevent harm to yourself or the other person." She took the holograph from his hand and gazed down at it with remorse. "When Koji told me that Lenne left him for you, we both thought you were in it for revenge. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized … that's just not who you are. However, the fact that Koji tried to hurt you means he couldn't let go of Lenne. I have no doubt he cared for her very much, but it was a selfish obsession, rather than a protective love. I think Lenne recognized that. And I think that's why she wanted out." Kaila paused as if wondering if she said too much. "It's just my opinion, of course."

"Kaila, it might not mean much now, but … you are more than Koji's sister to me. It just came out of my mouth all wrong when I tried to explain it. I'm sorry."

She smiled and slipped her arms around his neck to hug him like the life-long friends they used to be. "Thank you, Shu. I'm done obsessing over you, but when I do find my special someone, he's going to have to be a lot like you. Lenne's a lucky girl." Kaila straightened and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Do you love her? I don't mean lust or like. I mean … do you _really love _her?"

He had not considered it before, so he honestly wasn't sure.

"She was the one thing Koji could not bear to lose to you. Whether it's because he wanted her that much or hated you that much, we'll never know. But if this thing with Lenne is one of your passing flings, then Koji died for nothing."

Shuyin weighed her words carefully. He had tried to walk away for the sake of Lenne's relationship with Koji. He had been willing to let go, even if it wasn't what he wanted. But that wasn't what _she_ wanted. And it was_ her _wish that he had defended … to the death. Closing his eyes with a pained expression, he realized that meant he was probably capable of doing anything for her. "It's not a passing fling. I love her."

))((

After he delivered the devastating news to Koji's parents, Shuyin walked home and contacted Lenne, asking her to come over. After showering, he changed, took some painkillers for his wounds, and paced the floor, practicing how to tell her what happened. But when he answered the door and saw her pale face and red eyes, he knew she had already heard. "Kaila told you," he guessed.

Lenne nodded, at a loss for words, then reached to him for comfort in their mutual loss.

"He was right, you know," Shuyin quietly spoke. "I'm cursed. I drive people crazy, and then they end up killing themselves."

Pulling back from his shoulder, Lenne shook her head and looked up at him with concern. "Don't say things like that. If you start to believe it, you really will curse yourself. We did hurt his feelings—and I feel terrible beyond words about that—but it was his choice to take it out on you." Noticing the blood-stained gauze on Shuyin's arm, she removed the bandage and examined the wound. "I could have waited longer to break up with him. You could have avoided me completely. But it wouldn't have changed anything for him. Koji was poisoned by his own long-term resentment. That's the kind of thing that turns even the best of souls into fiends." Placing a hand over his arm, she used her white magic to mend it. "Shuyin, please don't blame yourself for Koji's death. That's a dangerous thing to do to your own heart." She clasped his hand in one hand and caressed his cheek with the other.

"Did you know he was going to ask you to marry him?"

Lenne was stunned and more deeply saddened. "No."

"Kaila told me."

Withdrawing, she turned away, troubled. "That must have been the surprise. He was going to surprise me with something after dinner, but I didn't give him the chance. I didn't want him doing anything special for me since I was going to break things off. I-I couldn't have …" Covering her face with her hands, she started to cry once more.

Shuyin drew her shoulders close, folded his arms around her, and cradled her head to his chest. Giving her back a comforting rub, he kissed the top of her head and rested his cheek against it. It was only a small relief to hear that Kaila's guess on Koji's relationship with Lenne had been correct. The fact remained that Koji was dead because of Shuyin's premature interference, his decision to take the fight to the water, and his lack of action in helping him escape the fiend. Shuyin failed to save his best friend, just as he had been unable to save his mother. It was a failure he swore he would never let happen again.

))((

Koji was honored in a memorial service, and the investigation into the circumstances of his death found Shuyin innocent of any charges. News of the incident did not reach the media, thanks to careful management behind the scenes. However, ever since the barroom brawl incident, word had spread that a famous singer was beginning to regularly show up in the company of a particular charismatic blitzball star. While most people found this development amusing or endearing, Koji's parents considered Shuyin's brazen union with Lenne to be the reason for Koji's tragic behavior. Shuyin and Lenne made conscious decisions to always honor their memories of their friend. But they also needed to move on with their lives.

In the weeks following Koji's death, Shuyin repaid his debts and apologies for the disturbance he had caused regarding the disgruntled fan at the diner. But just as he was beginning to make his managers doubt their decision to take on such a brash, young athlete, his games began to improve. Within a month, Shuyin and the Abes were back on top in the blitzball arena. Cross-training with martial arts—training that not only gave him new skills but also taught him how to focus better—was one of the factors that fine-tuned his performance. But he also found a new sense of purpose for his life … with Lenne.

Channeling some of that renewed passion toward creative means, Shuyin even finished the song he had started before Koji's last visit. He had worked so hard to put the finishing touches on it that he was annoyed when—once more—a knock on the door interrupted him. "It's open!" he called.

"Wow, someone's been housecleaning," Lenne called from the living room. "I was beginning to think you're the king of clutter instead of sun and waves."

Shuyin made a face at her remark. But then he stood and went to the kitchen where he found her bending over the fruit drawer in the fridge. Happy that Lenne liked wearing miniskirts as much as he liked looking at them, he lifted the floppy cap from her head and watched her hair spill over her back and shoulders like a graceful web of silk. "You can't use this disguise much longer, you know." Fitting her cap onto his own head, he inspected whatever surprises her grocery bag held and handed her the remaining items that belonged in cold storage.

Lenne flicked her hair over her shoulder to get it out of her way. "Well, it's still good enough to get me to the market and back so I can buy real food instead of those horrible little plastic trays of frozen mystery meat." Straightening, she turned around and popped a grape into his mouth before munching one herself and closing the door. "By the way, after the concert tonight, dinner's on me." Barefoot, she stepped onto his feet, rose to her toes, and kissed him before turning her attention back to the half-empty grocery bag.

Her words distorted into a visual image that left a silly smirk on his lips. "Literally or figuratively?"

She cuffed his stomach and took her hat back. "You know what I mean."

"My idea's better."

"Not if it involves wearing rice and snow peas." Putting the hat back on without twisting her hair up under it, she leaned against the table and munched a few more grapes.

"Speaking of snow, I've finally been able to reschedule time off for a camping trip, since I didn't get to go ... before …" It was still hard to speak of Koji's death, so he left it unsaid. "Still interested in coming along for a trip to Gagazet?"

"What in the world makes you think I would leave my cozy, little home in the city for a mountain of thigh-high snow?"

"It's not that deep. Well, not on the paths anyway. The ronso keep it pretty packed down. But we did tell Bahamut we would take him camping someday." Shuyin leaned against the bar counter and stole one of the grapes from her hand.

"What about a trip to the beach, instead?"

"I'm in water all the time. I haven't been to the mountains in a while."

"Ah, but your sphere pool doesn't have sand."

Drawing closer, he rested his hands on her waist. "There's a ronso hot spring there."

"Mmm ... tempting …" She tried not to smile as she continued to eat her grapes.

"I'll let you throw snowballs at me."

"Even more tempting."

"And I won't throw any back at you."

"Ooh. You're on." She kissed him and went to the sink to wash her hands.

"Cool. I'll get out the gear and check it over as soon as I finish the song."

"Song? What song?" Her brows knit as she sucked her last grape between her teeth and dried her hands.

"I've been trying to write a song," he admitted, somewhat bashful.

"Is that what you were playing when I came in? I thought that was sheet music from one of your old books."

"No, it's totally mine, but I've never tried to write music before, so it's … kind of a slow process."

Lenne smiled with pleasant surprise. "Well, in that case, you have to let me hear it."

"It's not as good as anything you've done."

"I'm the music expert here. I'll be the judge of what's good. Come on. You have to play it for me now." Hooking his arm, she led him out of the kitchen and through the houseboat to his room, where she took a seat beside him on the keyboard's bench.

"I was getting ready to record it, so I could hear it from a playback perspective, you know?" Shuyin sat down and reached for a memory sphere he set on the back of his keyboard. In messing with it, he knocked off a ceramic monkey she had bought for him and a holographic photo of her in a small cube.

She snickered as he grunted in disgust and reached to pick up the items. "King of clutter. I rest my case."

"Well, you're the one that gave me the stupid monkey."

"It's not stupid. It's cute. I almost bought you a real squatter monkey, but the pet store didn't have one that would do this." She imitated his notorious monkey doodle spank.

He tried not to smile. "How was that again?"

She started to do it again, but then laughed and gave his shoulder a small shove. "You are such a pig sometimes."

He giggled at her reaction. "Why would I want to watch a monkey do that when I can watch you do it instead?"

"Just play your song." She chuckled, giving up on his sense of humor.

"Okay." Still humored, he turned on the recorder and set it on top of the keyboard, careful not to knock over anything this time. Then, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with her, he put his fingers on the keys and drew a breath to settle his concentration. He was a little nervous since this was the first time he'd ever played an original composition for anyone, but as he began to play the soft, haunting melody, he tuned everything else out.

))((

Lenne thought the song was lovely but found her attention drifting away from the delicate tune to his hands and face as he played. Shuyin was the kind of guy who threw one hundred percent of himself into whatever he did, and right now, he was one hundred percent into this song. She was surprised and amused at how such a simple thing suddenly made him ten times more amazing to her than he already was. Thoughts of shoving him off of the piano bench and pouncing him with hugs and kisses right then and there did occur to her, but he probably wouldn't have appreciated her interrupting his song like that. Such was the depth of Shuyin's intent when confronted with a challenge. But he was also a very easily distracted individual, and that made her think of a way she could pay him back for his teasing. Snickering to herself, she leaned close. Breathing gently against his neck, she touched the tip of her tongue to his earring and drew it between her teeth.

Shuyin tried not to laugh or give in to the sudden, electrifying sensation. "Cut it out." He tucked his ear to his shoulder and tried to avoid laughing at the ticklish sensation. "I'm trying to concentrate."

She chuckled softly. "Okay. I'll behave."

"Okay. Ready?"

"I'm listening."

He began again to carefully play the haunting melody that he penned himself and committed to memory. Every note had to be just right. No mistakes.

"Wow, that's really good. No, it's more than good—it's beautiful." Lenne wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned against him with a contented sigh as he continued playing. "Can I have it?"

He chuckled at the request. "No. You have enough songs; this one's mine."

"But you'll never play this for anyone else. You're too shy. And then it will be wasted, just like all those years of piano lessons."

"Hey, those lessons weren't my idea. If my mom had her way, I'd be playing classical concerts instead of blitzball. I'm just trying to salvage something useful from all those hours of banging my head, more than my fingers, against the keyboard."

"Well, I think you should be proud of this."

"I am."

"Then share it with more people. You've got a real gift here. But, I guess it's also kinda nice to see you shy about something ... for once." She grinned.

He glanced at her without pausing the song. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're such a humble soul." She laughed as soon as she said it.

He smirked, tolerating the joke at his expense.

"So, what did you name it?"

"I haven't yet. Guess I'll name it when I feel inspired."

"And then you'll let me have it, and I can add lyrics and sing it at my concert."

He laughed. "No."

"Please?" She leaned in and kissed his ear once more.

He tilted his ear toward his shoulder and chuckled again at her bribery. "Nope."

"Please," she repeated with a grin, leaning in front of him to kiss his lips instead.

"Nh-nh," he denied one more time. But as the kiss lingered, his hand reached blindly for the memory sphere, groping to turn it off. The sphere slipped from the back of the keyboard and wedged next to the wall at a precarious tilt. "Damn," he muttered. "Why do I always do that?" Then, it hit the floor and blinked off.

Lenne giggled a little, but Shuyin was so into the kiss now that he left it on the floor and straddled the bench to face her instead of the piano. Reaching to the long silver chain that looped over her belt, he tugged playfully on it, wanting her to scoot closer.

She humored him by copying his position, but dangled her knees over his, interlocking her fingers behind his neck and touching her nose to his, in a child-like manner. "Don't even think about getting feisty now."

"I'm always feisty."

"But I have to be at the concert hall in an hour." She gave her feet a light swing.

"Well, I was only interested in playing my song, but noooo, you had to start messing with my ears."

She laughed and drew her fingers down his jawline to his chin. "Your song was lovely, Shu. I'm, touched—no, _honored_—that you shared it with me. You'll have to play it again for me sometime. Oh, that reminds me. Bring your birthday sphere to the concert tonight."

He was puzzled. "You're not making me give it back, are you?"

"No, but I'd like to update it. I've been working on some new songs, we have some new dances, and you need some better memories. Let's not keep the show that you walked out on, okay? Besides, I've got something in this show that is just for you." She slid her hands under his shirt, over his soft, warm skin, making him shudder slightly beneath her touch as she glanced toward the clock. An hour was not nearly enough time to enjoy him. Under the circumstances, however, it would have to do.


	15. Chapter 15: Bond of Trust

Chapter 15: Bond of Trust

Lenne overshot her time limit to get to the concert hall, despite her attempt to keep an eye on the clock. And now, as she and Shuyin stopped to catch their breath from running, they could see that a large number of people were already clustered at the front doors of the Zanarkand Concert Hall. She needed a strategy for entering the building before getting any closer. Making sure her hair was tucked under her hat and pushing her sunglasses a bit higher on her nose, she tapped the shoulder of the elderly gentleman in front of her. "Excuse me. Could you tell me what time it is?"

"Well, it's ... let's see." He smiled pleasantly and showed her his watch. "How is that?"

Lenne's eyes widened, and she looked back to the growing crowd waiting for the doors to open. "Could you do me a favor?"

"If I can aid a young maiden in distress … certainly," he answered in a very proper tone.

"Could you look around the side to the back entrance and tell me if it's just as crowded there?"

"I just came from there, and I can tell you it is indeed. The concert is about ready to start, but they haven't started seating people yet. I consider myself quite fortunate to be able to attend this evening. Lenne is quite a talented young woman."

Shuyin's nose scrunched. "Aren't you … kinda old to be attending these kinds of things?"

Lenne cuffed him on the arm and scowled at him. "_Rude_," she whispered in admonishment.

The old man merely chuckled. "When you've been around as long as I have, you learn that talent is admirable at any age. Are you here for the concert, too?"

Lenne smiled in embarrassment, but she was glad that her simple disguise was enough to hide her true identity. "Absolutely. Could I ask another favor of you? Could you go to the back area and look for a little boy about so high with black hair and dark brown eyes?" She held a hand level to her waist. "He's probably wearing his favorite purple hoodie and shorts. His eyes are light-sensitive, so he usually wears the hood up. If you see him, could you please tell him his sister is here, and bring him back with you?"

"No trouble." The old man nodded and left to search the area.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Lenne turned on Shuyin again for his comment about the man's age. "I can't believe you said that."

"How was I supposed to know he wasn't some old geezer that just came to look at your legs? If I was a hundred years old, I'd think watching a nineteen-year-old girl on a stage is great entertainment, too."

"You are so bad. He is a nice man."

Shuyin chuckled and shrugged. "I didn't say he wasn't. In fact, I think I've found my role-model. I'll grow a long, gray beard that I can paint yellow and black. I'll sit in the stands and yell at all the Abes's new, bad players. And then, I'll use my cane to show them how to do a real sphere shot. After the game, I'll head down to the concert hall and enjoy a great show."

Lenne was distracted, seeing the elderly gentleman return with Bahamut in tow. "He found him!" She bowed in gratitude and shook his hand as he came near. "Thank you so much, Sir."

"You are quite welcome. It was no trouble—no trouble at all."

"You're late," the boy told his sister. "People are getting impatient."

"I know, but there's still time," she apologized.

The man's attention returned to Shuyin, and his expression lit with recognition. "Now, I know who you are. I thought you looked familiar. You play for the Abes, do you not? Jecht's son, defender of the family name in the blitzball arena ... and sports cafes." He chuckled lightly.

"Yep, that's me," Shuyin admitted with a small head bob greeting, not proud of the fact.

"My name is Maechen. I'm a scholar by trade." The old man bowed, then held out his hand to shake Shuyin's. "How very nice to meet you. I always admired your father's abilities in the sphere pool, and I have been following your progress with much interest. I believe you are destined for great things. But if you are that certain blitzball player, then ... " He adjusted the small, round spectacles on the end of his nose to take another look at Lenne. "… you must be that certain singer."

She put a finger to her lips but smiled. "Please don't tell anyone I'm here, okay? I need to get inside quickly, but the show will only be delayed more if everyone comes over here." She drew a backstage pass out of her handbag and clicked a pen to sign an autograph for him. "We can talk more later if you like. And I hope you enjoy the show … if I can ever get inside."

"It was enough to simply shake your hand, but ... thank you. It has been an honor to speak with you directly." Maechen smiled, happy with the gift.

Lenne pulled Shuyin and her little brother with her as she led the way to a different building under a flashing billboard on the other side of the high road. "When all else fails, door number three."

"Um ... the concert hall was that way?" Shuyin pointed behind them.

"I'll never make it through the front doors in a reasonable time, and the door behind the building is for the stage crews and musicians when they arrive before the crowds. Otherwise, there's a third entrance no one else knows about. These are the recording offices, but they connect to the concert hall." Pulling open the doors, she showed her pass to the security guards posted at the building's entrance, then hurried down the stairs to the long underground corridor toward the main building.

"Shuyin, want to see a special kind of polymer I made today with my chemistry kit?" Bahamut held up a handful of green slime that held together in a lump form but also dripped slowly between his fingers.

Shuyin put a hand to the back of the kid's neck to keep him moving quickly behind Lenne. "Polymer? Hm, looks more like shoopuff snot, if you ask me."

Lenne glanced over her shoulder and made a face of disgust, but shook her head in amusement and continued her relentless pace, alternating between a fast walk and a light jog.

"How do you know what shoopuff snot looks like?" Bahamut challenged.

"Figure of speech, kid." Shuyin took the goop from his hand to examine it more closely.

"I'd like to have it back, please." Bahamut reached for it.

Twice the boy's height, Shuyin raised it out of his reach. "Why?"

"Because I made it myself."

"Is it toxic?"

"No."

"Does it wash off easily?"

"It depends on what you put it on. Why?"

Shuyin pushed the boy's hands aside and then slapped it into his face with a loud _slop_! Bahamut winced at the awful sound and sensation, which made Shuyin giggle. But then Bahamut released a rare giggle, too, and scraped the goop from his face. The boy reached high to slop it back into Shuyin's face, but the blitzball player dodged and jogged ahead of him. Bahamut ran after him, but Shuyin kept hopping a few paces ahead just beyond reach, making taunting gestures. Within seconds they were both laughing and running down the corridor in a full-speed chase.

"Shuyin!" Lenne laughed in mid-complaint when she saw what he had done to her little brother, but she could tell the blitzball player was proud of himself for being able to make the serious boy laugh. "Gah! Get that stuff off of him. It's disgusting." Stopping at her dressing room, she fumbled with her key-card to open it. Then, she threw open the door to let them in. "Sometimes I think I'm babysitting _two_ children, only you're worse than he is."

"He started it." The blitzball player chuckled as he walked back to the door, thinking their little game was over. Shuyin popped the back of the boy's head lightly as he passed him, but now that he was no longer a running target, Bahamut slopped the goop into his face. "Oh, gross." Shuyin winced as he scraped the polymer goop off of his cheek, making Bahamut giggle even more. "She's right. This really is disgusting."

Lenne entered the dressing room to face an unhappy stage production crew who all made a point of checking their watches in unison. Bahamut started to follow when Shuyin wrapped him in a surprise headlock and slapped the goop back into his face a second time. Then Shuyin casually strolled into the room ahead of him with a smug, satisfied chuckle.

Dori, Lenne's manager, stared at the trio's dramatic entrance as if torn between sighing with relief and cursing them out. "Where have you been?"

"I was at Shuyin's." Flustered, Lenne quickly pulled off her shoes, hat, and sunglasses and hopped into the make-up chair. Then she remembered she needed to put on her stage costume first, grabbed a feather-fringed garment from the rack, and ran behind a dressing screen.

"Oh. Well, that answers my next question about what you were doing," the manager muttered under her breath, casting the blitzball player a mildly accusatory glance.

Shuyin flushed slightly and innocently scratched the back of his head.

"He was playing a song that he'd written," Lenne explained as she stepped out of her skirt and tugged at the sleeves of her shirt to remove it. "It's a really pretty song, too! If you're nice to him, he might play it for you."

Shuyin frowned at the dressing screen for her mentioning it to anyone else.

"Oh, honey, you don't need to feed me excuses." Dori waved away the news of the song and turned around to shut the door. "If I had someone like him and a few idle hours, I'd be doing more than listening to music. The problem is you don't have a few idle hours." She walked past him with a sarcastic expression and pinched his cheek as she headed to the dressing screen.

He winced and rubbed his cheek. "Why do I feel like I've just been violated?"

Dori chuckled low and looked over the top of her glasses at him. "You're going to feel more than that the next time you make her late for a concert." She pushed her glasses back up. "Lenne, we had to do the soundcheck without you, so you better hope everything works the way it's set up. Quick make-up, and you're on in fifteen minutes." Dori touched a com sphere and spoke to it. "Open the doors. She just came in. Tell everyone the show's going to start in about ten minutes."

"Just make-up? What about my hair? What about my nails?" Lenne rushed to pull on a sleek, white mini-dress that was decorated with a top layer of little, colorful feathers that dangled from the empire waist to the lace hem.

"Well, you should have worried about that before day tripping your way over here." Dori stepped behind the screen and zipped up the back of the dress for her.

Lenne drew in a sharp breath for the last bit of zipper. "Did this thing shrink overnight? I shouldn't have eaten that second doughnut." Pulling the uncomfortable dress down and twisting it into a slightly more comfortable position, she hurried from behind the screen to the make-up chair. "I can do my nails while you work, right?"

"Wrong." Graig, the make-up artist, cloaked her shoulders and costume to begin work on her face, giving her a nasty look for even suggesting such a thing.

"But I have these cute little feathered nail accessories that all you have to do is press them on. They're in my purse." She tried to hold her head still while she extended an arm and groped toward the counter. "Shu?"

The blitzball player moved to the make-up counter, opened her handbag, and found the box of nail accessories she mentioned. "What are you supposed to be? A peacock?"

"It's a native Besaid-style costume." She stretched her hand to accept the box, but he wasn't offering it.

Grinning with mischief, he held the box at her fingertips so she could touch the box, but not actually grasp it. "Nail feathers?"

"They're not actually feathers, they're just little fluffy bits that ..." She was getting frustrated at being able to feel the box but was unable to take it, no matter how much she leaned toward it. When she heard his snickers and saw his grin in the mirror, she realized the problem was him, not her. With a small snarl, she turned her chin away from the make-up artist and snatched the box from his hand. "You are in rare form today, Shuyin!"

"_Lenne_." The make-up artist scolded, grabbed her head, and pulled her shoulders to the back of the chair once more. "If you don't want to look like a clown, don't move." Graig turned her head toward the mirror.

She didn't move, but her eyes met Shuyin's reflection in the mirror. He whispered something into Bahamut's ear, and the boy smiled. As Lenne continued watching, the boy handed the goop back to the blitzball player. Shuyin balanced and flattened the slime in his hand, preparing for some new prank as he moved at an angle between her and Graig. "Shu, so help me, if you put that stuff on my face, you will find it up your nose the next time you take a nap." But she was trying not to laugh with him as he delivered the threat.

Graig gave him a daggered look of warning.

"You know what? You guys are no fun," Shuyin returned. "But that's okay because it's more fun to catch someone unsuspecting."

The comlink in the dressing room chirped with an incoming message, and Dori answered it. "No time for chat. Make it quick."

In the mirror, Lenne saw Shuyin casually draw alongside the manager, slap the substance onto the side of her cheek, and hop back a few steps to avoid her fury. Dori's expression remained flat, but eyes slowly turned toward him. Everyone else in the room cracked up—everyone except Graig, who was even more frustrated now that his model was laughing.

"Can you hold for a minute?" Dori told the caller.

Shuyin giggled at the manager's calm and gingerly peeled the slime off of her cheek. "It's, um ... shoopuff poly-snot-something. Sorry. Couldn't resist."

"Are you familiar with water balloons?"

"I love water balloons!" He grinned and handed the slime back to Bahamut.

"Be afraid." She wiped her cheek. "Be very afraid, Shuyin." Returning her attention to the comlink, Dori moved to the other side of the room.

"Now see what you've done?" Lenne told him via the mirror. "You've earned the wrath of my manager. She's going to stalk you with water balloons."

"Dori and me on the beach with a bucket full of water balloons. Bring it." Shuyin folded his arms at his chest and leaned against the edge of the make-up mirror.

"Just a minute." Dori covered the sphere with one hand and walked to Lenne's side, placing it before her. "It's the temple." Her mildly irritated expression shifted to concern.

Lenne knew the temple would not have contacted her during a concert if it wasn't important. "Lenne here." She cupped the item in her hands, and Shuyin drew near in curiosity to see who it was.

The man visible in the sphere was dressed in the typical robes of his office, and he looked grave. "Lenne, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm trying to contact all the summoners in my sector. There haven't been any public announcements yet, but negotiations with Bevelle have ended. High Summoner Yevon has declared that Zanarkand will be a self-governing city, no longer bound by the rules that govern the rest of Spira."

"What? How is that even possible? We're all on the same ship. We can't go in one direction, while the rest of Spira goes another."

"High Summoner Yevon has rejected the restrictions placed on magic by the Founders and the Bevelle governing council."

"And Bevelle is okay with that?"

"Of course not." He sighed. "They haven't done anything about it yet, but they're saying Zanarkand is trying to run though there's no place to hide. Read into that what you will, but Yevon's council is split down the middle on what to do next. The temple will hold a meeting with all summoners and their guardians tomorrow morning."

"I'll be there," she promised.

"Thank you, Lenne. We'll speak more tomorrow. Try not to let it trouble you tonight."

When the comlink blinked off, Lenne passed it back to Dori and stared at herself in the mirror.

The room fell silent and still.

After a long pause, Dori checked her watch. "You heard the man. Nothing you can do about it tonight. The show must go on. We'll have plenty of time tomorrow to worry about what in the world the High Summoner thinks he's doing."

Graig reluctantly returned to his work, but everyone remained silent.

As soon as he released Lenne from her chair, she grabbed a hairbrush and touched up her appearance a little. Then, she opened the accessories box and quickly pressed the delicate little bits of fluff onto her nails. When she finished, a strange fear swept over her, and she drew a breath to calm her nerves.

Shuyin slipped his arms around her waist from behind.

Turning around, she looked deep into his eyes, then hugged him close. "For Zanarkand to completely break away from Bevelle when they were paranoid about us being out of control in the first place … that can't be a good thing."

"Save your questions for the meeting. Right now, half of Zanarkand is out there waiting to hear a great concert. You can't let them down."

A knock on the door indicated that it was time for her to be escorted onto the stage.

Lenne was glad Shuyin understood what it meant to be an entertainer. It was their job to give people a short-term escape from their worries and troubles. Giving him a kiss, she drew back and tried to smile ... for the sake of her audience. "Go take your seats. It's showtime. Oh, did you bring the other concert sphere?"

Shuyin dug his birthday present from his pocket and reluctantly released it.

Lenne checked the concerned faces of her crew, then hurried out the door.

))((

"This changes everything," Bahamut quietly stated, reminding Shuyin that he, too, was studying to become a summoner. Therefore, the boy was also aware of how the High Summoner's decision would be interpreted by the rest of the governing bodies of Spira.

Determined to remain upbeat, Shuyin put his hand on the boy's head and directed him toward the door. "Come on. We're going to miss the opening song." Waving to Lenne's crew, he passed through the backstage area, exiting discreetly to their reserved seats just as the lights began to flicker on the stage over her entrance.

Everyone else in the concert hall was already standing and dancing. Shuyin glanced down at Bahamut and saw he was preparing to sit down, as always. Shaking his head, he caught the shy boy's hands to pull him back out of his seat and make him dance. Bahamut was embarrassed, of course, especially when Shuyin inserted his little victory dance. But it did make him laugh again. Finally, the boy gave in and imitated the blitz player's dance, without needing a fish dropped down his shirt this time.

))((

Up on stage, Lenne grinned from ear-to-ear watching Shuyin's antics bring the boy out of his shell. And that put an extra bounce in her own choreography. When she glanced up at the camera and lights balcony, the recorder from the crew gave her a thumb's up. The sphere was recording everything. Winking at Shuyin, she gave him an 'okay' sign in the middle of her song. No worries tonight. Plenty of time for that tomorrow.

After the first two songs, Lenne paused to take a sip of water from the side stage and reached for one of the acoustic guitars propped in stands. A stagehand brought out a stool for her to sit on, and she greeted the audience, welcoming them to her show. "The next song is one that came to me after I met someone very special to my heart. I already had parts of this song floating in my head for some time, but meeting him kind of made everything fall into place." She smiled and strummed the opening chords. The concert hall became quiet and still except for the soft echoes of the song.

_"Whispers from a childhood long ago_

_Cobwebs in the mind's distant attic corners_

_How long will you run to escape your memories?"_

))((

Shuyin was silently awed. It was the song she sang to him after the fight fiasco, but with the guitar accompaniment, and then the entire band swelling into crescendo behind it, the music came to life in multiple layers of incredible beauty and strength. Hearing it sung this way, before thousands of people, truly humbled him. Palms together, fingers against his lips, he smiled and nodded in gratitude for the gift.

When the song was done, the audience cheered and applauded, Lenne wiped a small tear from her eye and grinned back at him.

Shuyin gave a shrill wolf whistle and applauded along with everyone else. Bahamut winced at the ear-piercing noise, but then stood on his seat and tried, unsuccessfully, to copy the blitzball player's whistle.

))((

The following afternoon, as Lenne strolled down the pier toward the houseboat, lost in her thoughts, she spotted Shuyin outside on his deck practicing with a bo against a padded central mast. She was relieved he had decided to learn some method of self-defense, and she was impressed with how fluidly the practice staff spun circles around him in a choreography that almost put her backup dancers to shame. Realizing she had stopped walking to watch, she continued across the deck to stand a safe distance in front of him. "You're getting pretty good at that. Course you'd do more damage if you traded the stick for a sword."

He spun the bo to a stop behind his shoulder and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Sticks are less expensive to replace than swords, and masts are stronger than both."

"Do you practice against actual opponents, or do you expect your foes to line up like poles?"

He smirked at her sarcasm. "I've used a bokken and padded sword against Luperis at the gym, and we both pray that the padding doesn't come off. How'd your meeting go?"

She walked to the mast to lean against it. "Well, it's true. High Summoner Yu Yevon has declared Zanarkand an independent city, and he's breaking off all negotiations until the Founders and Bevelle recognize us as such. He has been busy setting up new task offices to be sure that Zanarkand can continue to function without Bevelle's support in any way. Bevelle has had little to say about it, except that their machina is far more advanced than ours."

Shuyin shook his head at the news. "You're kidding, right? Koji and I used to do that 'my gun's bigger than yours' crap when we were, like ... five."

"That's what frightens me. Look at what happened when Koji's paranoia made him snap. It nearly destroyed both of you. The Founders have already stepped up the guards around Bevelle because they think we're going to attack them as an act of rebellion."

Shuyin lifted a brow as he squinted into the sun. "… Are we?"

Lenne shook her head. "High Summoner Yevon says Zanarkand will maintain a peaceful stance, but that all summoners should maintain diligence in the defensive practice of our skills." She paused, curious. "Have you ever fought any fiends … other than the one that attacked you and Koji?"

He was silent for a moment as he tapped the end of the bo against the side of his calf. "Does the drunk in the bar count?"

She chuckled glad to see his humor bounce back. "No. Would you like to try out your skills on a real fiend?"

"Well, from what I remember, there used to be a lot of fiends in the mountains. When we go camping, I might get my chance there."

She smiled slyly. "Would you like to fight one that won't try to kill you?"

His chin tilted in confusion. "Come again?"

Lenne backed up a few steps, closed her eyes, and summoned an elegant staff with an opalescent handle. Then, she chanted an invocation and swirled around, drawing magical glyphs out of the air onto the floor of the deck.

As a large, lion-like creature rose from the glyphs, Shuyin stumbled backward and landed on his rear. The beast roared at him, but then sat on its haunches and glared at him instead of attacking. Its red eyes held a disturbing intelligence that bore down on him as the spines on its back opened into a wing-like fan. The spines were not bone, though. They moved of their own accord with pulses of light, more like thin tentacles.

The blitzball player stared in wide-eyed amazement.

"Shuyin, this is Ryuo. He's an aeon." Lenne patted the creature's shoulder, which was higher than her head. "His spirit lives in a statue in the sacred water gardens east of the city. You should practice fighting him. He won't try to kill you. And if you defeat him, he won't die. He'll simply go back to the plane of magic where he lives. I can always summon him again after he has rested."

"You want me to fight _that thing_?"

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a little challenge."

"_Little_? He's so big he's going to sink the boat!" Shuyin fussed, pointing to the way that the boat was tilting to one side under the monster's weight.

"Hm, you've got a point there. But he'll give you a more realistic combat experience. You have to try to defeat him, Shuyin."

"Can _you_ defeat him?"

"No, but that's not the point."

"Then why pit me against him? I've had less experience with fiends than you have."

Lenne became irritated that he was arguing about it. "Because … Because I want you to be my guardian!"

Standing, Shuyin walked a wide and cautious circle around the beast, jumping slightly at the throaty growl it gave when he approached Lenne with a questioning look.

She sighed, but then answered his doubt with a pout. "Summoners are supposed to have a least one guardian when they enter battle. Otherwise, they could get struck during spell casting and die before the spell even materializes. That's especially true in the case of aeon summoning because it takes a few minutes for the creature to manifest into reality. Because the bond between a summoner and guardian is essential for them to be able to work as a team, summoners choose only people they trust. I've met with a few candidates from other temples that had good warrior skills, but the bond of trust just wasn't there." She lowered her gaze.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You would trust _me_ ... with your life?"

She lifted her chin and returned a single nod.

Shuyin grew quiet as he gave it some thought. It was a heavy responsibility—one he clearly doubted he could handle. "Why me?"

"You are the person closest to my heart. You are my best friend, my partner, my lover … the one I want and need by my side during difficult times." She shrugged, helpless to explain any better. "It doesn't seem right to keep looking for someone else."

))((

Shuyin saw something akin to desperation in Lenne's eyes. It wasn't something he usually saw in her confident countenance. "If it means that much to you, I'll do it." He looked at the bo he held, and then studied the aeon, still watching him with that intense gaze. "But there is no way I can defeat that thing. I'm just not good enough at this yet," he admitted instead of boasting about his abilities, for once.

"You can train." She sounded hopeful, folding her hands over her staff. "You can practice and learn, right?"

"I guess so. As long as you're able to control it, so it doesn't eat me."

She smiled. "I promise I won't let it eat you."

He brushed a finger over her cheek. "Then I promise I'll do my best to make sure nothing ever harms you."

Lenne sighed, overwhelmed with relief and hugged his neck. "Thank you. Just knowing you'll be there means a lot to me."

Shuyin held her for a moment but then released her and stepped back to face the beast once more. "All right, Big Guy. Show me what you got." After tapping the bo on the deck, he raised it in a defensive posture and carefully approached the aeon. "I can't believe I'm doing this. I was expecting something more like a dead spirit, not something built like a blitzball stadium."

The aeon growled and crouched into a pounce-ready position. Shuyin struck the beast across the shoulder, hesitating to actually hurt it. The "winged" lion-creature responded by springing against his chest with enough force to thrust him overboard with a big splash.

Lenne gasped and ran to the rail, joining the aeon in the search overboard.

Shuyin surfaced, spit out a mouthful of seawater, and squinted up at them. "Okay, this isn't going to work." Diving under again, he swam to the small ladder on the side of the boat and climbed it back up to the deck, where he sniffled with a slight cough. Hooking his fingers in his belt loops, Shuyin pulled his loose shorts from his hips back up to his waist and ignored Lenne's muffled giggle. "We're going to need to do this on solid ground—preferably _soft _ground—or Godzilla over there is going to capsize the entire boat. Let's crank her up and take her to the beach. Hopefully, the maintenance done so far will be enough."

The aeon growled and licked its lips as if trying to say something in response.

"Yeah, well, who asked you." Shuyin snorted and stepped inside the houseboat for a towel before heading for the cabin to start the boat's engine.


	16. Chapter 16: Peaceful Alliance

Chapter 16: Peaceful Alliance

The camping trip was sacrificed again following Yevon's declaration that Zanarkand would be governed independently from the rest of Spira. With the sudden flurry of activity in the temple, Lenne felt it was necessary to expedite Shuyin's guardian training, and he agreed. Shuyin spent his days training at the pool for blitzball games, as usual. But his evenings were spent training on the beach with Lenne's aeons, at the gym with Luperis, or at home experimenting with blitzball and martial arts combinations. With such intensive, frequent practices, he was forced to improve his sword-handling skills quickly or face brutal consequences. Eventually, Shuyin was using martial techniques to evade, tackle, and shoot during his games, and slamming blitzballs into aeons with enough force to disorient them, if not knock them out. His inventive moves locked the Abes into the top-ranked position. And his notoriety in the sport skyrocketed.

As Shuyin's skills increased, Lenne summoned increasingly powerful aeons to challenge him. Many days ended with the summoner healing the multiple wounds her aeons inflicted upon her guardian, and then holding him in her arms while he recovered from his discomfort and discouragement. But some days ended with inviting Bahamut along to grill freshly caught fish over a campfire, surfing on the incoming evening tide, and building sandcastles in the dark, before heading back to the pier. Game days and concert days were the exceptions. Those days had enough activity of their own, so they always ended with dinner at the Waterwall sports bar or a quiet, homecooked meal on the boat.

As Lenne's guardian, Shuyin began attending temple meetings with her. And as the gravity of Zanarkand's open rebellion against Bevelle became more concerning, he began to share her worry for Spira on a deeper level. Missions to keep Zanarkand on friendly relations with the other cities and villages became a priority for Yevon and his summoners when not dealing directly with spirits of the dead or constitutional issues. Lenne finally got her wish to travel when she was given the task of visiting settlements that did not have temples, and it was Shuyin's duty to protect her on those journeys.

For her first assignment, Lenne was to take her brother to their closest neighbors, the ronso tribe of Mt. Gagazet. Finally, the opportunity to combine business and pleasure had come their way, and the camping trip was assured.

))((

Tall, thin, and full of energy, Lenne's mother, Meri, was a clothes horse with a personality a lot like Lenne's and a taste for the spice of life. When Shuyin first met her, she ragged him about his boastful notes and incident with the drunk, but even then, she treated him as if he had always been family. So, when Shuyin and Lenne arrived to pick up Bahamut for their trip, he was not surprised when Meri's visiting sister, Liv, welcomed him with open arms, literally locking him in a bear hug.

"Shuyin! I'm so glad to finally meet you! Goodness, I've heard so much about you, media and otherwise." Liv nodded to Meri. "I'm not much of a sports fan, to be honest, but anytime I come across an advertisement for Abes tickets or merchandise, it's your face and those fancy flips that I see." Liv released him but held onto his hands with a pause before looking back to her sister. "You're right. He does have nice hands."

"Doesn't he?" Meri laughed with her sister as if some private joke passed between them.

Shuyin looked down at his hands and then warily looked to Lenne for an explanation.

"Don't ask," Lenne advised. "They're both divorced now, and they've probably already had a couple of spiked teas. If their humor gets too obnoxious for you, don't be afraid to run."

"Oh, stop." Meri chuckled and lightly smacked her daughter's shoulder for that remark. "I was just telling Liv about an article I read explaining what our hands say about our personalities, and Shuyin came into the conversation because his skin and hands always look so flawless in spite of such rough treatment in those games. I think it's because he's in that pool all the time. Do they add anything special to that water?"

He thought that answer would have been obvious. "Um, … chlorine?"

Meri laughed. "See? He tolerates my humor better than you do. Isn't that right, Shu?" She gave him a light hug and patted his back. "Did I tell you he's also Lenne's guardian?" she added to her sister. "That's why they're leaving this weekend for the mountains. They're speaking with the ronso on official business for High Summoner Yevon."

"Oh my. That sounds serious." Lenne's aunt was impressed. "Is that why you're carrying that big sword? And yet you're taking Bahamut with you? Is that safe?"

"Bahamut was assigned to go with me as part of his apprenticeship," Lenne answered. "We'll take good care of him."

The boy dragged his camping gear into the living room and deposited it in a large mound at Shuyin's boots. "Okay, I'm ready. I studied how to camp this week, and I think I've got everything. First aid kit, cooking kit, compass, maps, water purifying tablets, fiend field guides ..."

Shuyin crouched in front of the bag and gave the strained zipper a poke. "You couldn't even drag this across the floor. How are you going to carry it on your back?"

"I'm just doing what the books said."

"Well, this time you're going by _Shuyin's Book of Because I Said So_. That backpack will turn you into a runaway snowball at the first steep incline. We're just going for a weekend, so we can travel light. All you need is your sleeping bag, a blanket, your toothbrush, something to entertain yourself, and layers. I've got everything else."

"Layers?"

"You _are_ wearing layers, right?" Shuyin lifted the boy's shirt to check but poked bare ribs. "Where's your underwear?"

"I'm wearing it," Bahamut insisted with a defensive frown.

"_Long_ underwear—_thermal_ underwear. Gagazet has snow year-round. Go get two more layers of everything, especially socks." He sent the boy back to his room, dumped the backpack, and began repacking only the necessities. "He _studied_ camping? Who does that? Camping is one of those things that you never learn how to do right until you do something wrong." He tightly rolled the blanket and bag together, then tied them. "Temperatures are going to be the main problem, so we've got to have layers. At night, we can build a fire, sleep in the hot springs, or huddle for warmth, but the hike up and back can get very cold very quickly."

"Huddling for warmth with a blitzball player? Lenne, are you sure you don't want to leave Bahamut here?" Meri asked. But then she and her sister laughed again.

"_Mother!_" Lenne slapped a hand to her forehead as her cheeks flushed.

Shuyin wasn't sure which was more amusing, Lenne's mother's and aunt's jokes, or her reaction to them. "Wow. They really need to start dating again. I should bring the other guys from the team next time. They'd have loads of fun with this."

Lenne chuckled, glad he was so easy-going about it. "Don't encourage them."

"What about you? Where's your underwear?" he asked with a mock sultry tone as he straightened back to his full height.

She lifted the bottom of her shirt to display a thick, waffle-weave underneath it. "These hideous things cover me from my neck to my ankles, and I'm wearing two pairs of socks. Happy?"

He grinned with approval. "Don't tease me. You know I can't handle the sexy of that many layers."

Laughing, she readjusted her shirts. "Just wait until you see my fur-lined boots."

A few minutes later, Bahamut returned and lifted his shirt to show that he was now wearing thermal layers, too. When the boy passed inspection and threw some more clothing into his backpack, Shuyin helped him try on the adjusted weight. "How's that?"

Bahamut shifted the backpack on his shoulders and nodded. "It's good."

"Not too heavy?" Behind him, Shuyin pressed down between the straps. "You sure?"

"It's … okay." The boy struggled to maintain balance as the weight on the pack steadily, mysteriously increased. When he nearly fell over, he looked over his shoulder at Shuyin. "You're doing it!"

Pleased with himself at having outwitted the little genius for a few seconds, the blitzball player chuckled and gave the boy a back slap that nearly sent him sprawling.

"Well, you kids have fun. Be careful. Contact us immediately if you get snowed under or something, so we can send help, okay?" Meri gave Bahamut's cheek a kiss. And when he flushed with embarrassment about it, she pulled him back for two more like the first.

The trio said their goodbyes and left the apartment to take the lift to the ground floor. Bahamut shook his head at his lot in life. "Thanks for getting me out of there. Whenever Aunt Liv visits, Mom gets a little crazy."

"Shake it off, little man. It's rustic male-bonding time." Shuyin dropped a hand onto the boy's hooded head. "We'll build a fire the old fashioned way, hunt our dinner, keep our territory free of fiends, throw snowballs at your sister, and write our names in the snow." He flipped his own hood over his head to match Bahamut's preferred look, which made the boy giggle.

"Oh, Yevon, help me." Lenne walked behind them. "I may need a day at the spa with a couple of girlfriends after this."

))((

Lenne enjoyed the hike to the mountains more than she thought she would. After a few hours uphill with her backpack, it became tolerable. A few hours later, when they entered the snow zone, she endured it. But when they came to the dizzying heights of crisscrossing, narrow, snow-covered paths, she came to a stop. Hugging a large rock, she stopped to rest and refused to go any further. "I can't do it." She shook her head.

For most of the upper portion of the hike, Shuyin stayed several paces ahead, making an easier path for her and her brother through the snow. When they stopped following, he returned to her side, wondering what was wrong.

"She's afraid of heights," Bahamut informed their guardian.

"That … would have been helpful to know _before_ planning a trip through the mountains."

"There's high, and then there's freaky high," Lenne complained.

Shuyin looked around at the rocks and snow and cast an eye toward the distant city below. He wasn't angry or frustrated with her. Instead, he seemed amused. "It _is_ a mountain."

"Big heights should have big passes!" Lenne looked beyond the wall to where their path led next, fear written all over her face. "What if I fall on a patch of ice? There's nothing to hold onto!"

Shuyin smiled and held out his hand. "Then hold onto me."

With disbelief, Lenne stared at his extended glove. This was why she chose him as her guardian. She trusted him. But he trusted in his own ability to always find a way … somehow. Steadying her nerves, she tried not to think of the risks for both of them. Then, releasing the rock, she clasped his hand with both of hers.

"Keep your eyes on me. Don't look down. I won't let you fall. Promise." Looking past her shoulder, he checked on the boy. "How about you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Bahamut's voice didn't sound as confident as it did before. Reading about the high path was one thing. Crossing it was another.

"Good." Shuyin played along. "Stay behind your sister, but not too close. Keep your eyes on her or the path, and stay in the center, okay?" Once they both looked ready to cross the thin, stone bridges, Shuyin gave Lenne an assuring smile, squeezed her hand lightly, and led the way through the treacherous maze.

As they trudged through blustery winds and deep snowdrifts, Lenne numbed herself to everything except Shuyin's presence. Only when they were out of the crossroads and on a much wider path did she turn her eyes toward the part of the mountain where the ronso village lay tucked just inside the entrance to the mountain pass, off the trail in a hollow full of caves set between Gagazet's ridges. They encountered no wild animals or fiends, for which she was grateful. And by the time they reached the village, Lenne had taken the party lead.

Bowing with respect then straightening after she was met at the village outskirts, she scanned the stern faces of the large, primitive, lion-like people, searching for signs as to which might be their leader. "Greetings. My name is Lenne. Forgive us for entering ronso territory without permission," the small, human summoner told the growing gathering. "I would like to speak with Elder Kinan, if I may … please. I'm from the Temple of Yevon in Zanarkand. And I've come to speak with him on behalf of my city."

"Elder Kinan welcomes Zanarkand summoner." A large blue ronso with a black mane stepped forward. At his side, he held a long, magical lance wrapped with various talismans. "Come. We talk." Turning away, he led them to his cavern.

Lenne licked her chapped lips, gave Shuyin a nervous glance, and took her brother's hand as they followed. Ducking under the patched-coeurl skin door flap over the entrance, she was disappointed to see that interior was about as bleak as the mountain itself. Though he was the ronso clan's elder, Kinan had little in the means of food, storage, and blankets. But there was a fire pit in the middle of the cavern floor. And right now, warmth was what mattered most to her.

"Sit." Elder Kinan pointed to the fire pit, knowing the thin-skinned humans would be cold from their journey.

Lenne sat close to the flames but kept her coat on. Her two companions sat down to either side of her. "Thank you." She shuddered as her fingers and toes began the slow, painful process of thawing.

"What does Zanarkand ask of ronso?" Kinan asked, suspicious and still standing.

"Are you aware that Zanarkand has broken away from the Founders' rule over Spira?"

"Ronso live between Bevelle and Zanarkand. It is ronsos' duty to be aware. Bevelle and Zanarkand very quiet. Prepare for coming storm. Ronso want no part in human conflict."

"Of course not," Lenne agreed with his concerns. "But, unfortunately, there might not be a way for you to avoid it. High Summoner Yevon has refused the Founders' attempts to restrict our use of magic because he believes their ultimate goal is to take us back to the planet where the colony ship originally came from. He believes the Founders want to destroy all magic and non-human life forms on Spira. That includes the ronso. If that happens, we could all die."

"How does Lord Yevon know this?"

"He found ancient documents that attest to it."

"Why does Yevon not share documents with Spira to prove it?"

Lenne had no answer for that. "Maybe he's afraid the Founders will try to destroy the evidence if they know he has it."

"Have you seen documents?"

Lenne reluctantly shook her head. "No. I'm … I'm just a summoner."

"Why do you trust Yevon's word?"

"Because High Summoner Yevon has done so much to protect us from the fiends that plague our city. Not just our city, but all of Spira. Now, he wants to protect non-human inhabitants of Spira from being destroyed by the Founders."

"Ronso believe Spira belongs to Spirans, not other world."

Lenne smiled at his agreement. It was a step in the right direction for negotiations, at least.

"But, Bevelle right to fear strong magic," Elder Kinan continued with a frown.

Well, so much for perfect negotiations. She tried not to fret. "High Summoner Yevon wants the ronso to know he will do everything he can to protect _all_ of Spira's living inhabitants if the Founders and their allies attempt to destroy non-humans and their magic," Lenne assured the tribal elder. "But he's worried that Bevelle will try to shut down the mountain pass leading into Zanarkand to cut off trade or pre-empt a military strike. Isolating Zanarkand in this way might also cut off ronso from the rest of Spira. But it will definitely harm trade and Zanarkand's ability to aid any non-human Spirans Bevelle targets. High Summoner Yevon would like to know what the ronso position is on keeping the pass open. For everyone, not just Zanarkand."

"Zanarkand has always been peaceful neighbor. Ronso have no quarrel with Zanarkand. If Bevelle tries to close pass, ronso will have quarrel with Bevelle." His lips curled back from his fangs to emphasize it was a promise he intended to keep, should Bevelle interfere with ronso territory.

"May I make a suggestion for one way to keep the pass open?"

"Summoner Lenne may speak."

"These mountains have one uber _nasty _network of rock roads and bridges." She exhaled and shook her head, then paused to give Shuyin a side glance of gratitude for getting her through it before turning her attention back to the ronso elder. "Zanarkand has teleporters that would make travel through this region much easier."

Elder Kinan snarled. "Ronso will not have machina on crossroads."

"Teleporters aren't ordinary machina. They work on magic, so they're very reliable. Magic can last thousands of years if cast properly. And they work flawlessly between short distances. We could help you build teleportation gates along the paths in the pass to make travel safer and quicker for everyone, including the ronso."

"Teleportation gates … Ronso have many hidden caverns that could use teleport gates." Elder Kinan considered the idea and gave a firm nod. "Accepted. Kinan will send someone with Summoner Lenne to Zanarkand to learn this magic. Gates, however, must be ronso design so we can maintain ourselves."

"Very wise." Lenne smiled and removed her gloves, now that her hands were warm.

"In exchange for teleportation gates, roads of Gagazet and ronso caverns will stay open to Zanarkand. Good faith for good neighbors."

"Thank you, Elder Kinan." She bowed deeply in her seated position.

"Summoner Lenne and guardians will stay for sunset meal."

Mildly insulted, Bahamut sat up a little straighter. "I'm an apprentice summoner. _He's_ the guardian." He pointed to Shuyin.

"Two summoners? One cub very young. Easy to sympathize with Bevelle's fear if young summoners gain strong magic like Yevon."

Lenne didn't know what to say to that. She looked to her little brother and worried for a moment about his future, but then faced the elder once more. "We would love to stay, but I don't want to go back through those crossroads in the dark. Actually, I don't want to go back across them at all," she added under her breath.

"Wait here." Elder Kinan left the cavern without any further explanation.

As the fire snapped and crackled with soothing heat, Lenne chewed her lip. "I wonder how long the ronso will remain friends with Zanarkand if Bevelle does anything to their mountain home because of us."

Shuyin picked up a pebble from the dirt floor near the woven mat he sat on. "What still gets me is Zanarkand never did anything to Bevelle to deserve the bad vibes in the first place, you know?"

Bahamut gazed into the fire, almost in a trance. "It doesn't matter that we've never harmed Bevelle. They don't like who we are or how we live. They don't understand us. Sometimes that is all it takes to make people hate."

Lenne leaned against Shuyin's shoulder, wrapping her arms around his arm, curling her knees toward his lap. "They hate us because they can't control us. And they don't trust us to control ourselves." The breeze that invaded the warmth of their little circle from the barely-covered doorway made her shiver. "That's why they keep upgrading their machina weapons. That's why they want to strip us of our magic. It's all about who is in control."

"There must be a balance between individual freedom and responsibility toward others," Bahamut spoke again. "Zanarkand and Bevelle should have tried harder to find a middle way through their negotiations. Without compromise, no regulations and too many regulations will hurt us all."

Shuyin sighed at the boy's morose mutterings. Then, casting the pebble into the fire, he removed his gloves and held his hands close to the flames. "Well, I may not have gotten anything else out of my history and science classes, but Bevelle wouldn't even be here if the machina on Spira wasn't supported with the magic of the Farplane, right?"

Lenne blew on her fingers. "That doesn't matter to the Founders. They're safe on the homeworld, watching us from a distance. Only their governors in that tower on Mushroom Rock Road are brave enough to supervise us—make sure we're behaving. To them, we are nothing more than an experiment gone awry. They just want to reclaim what is rightfully theirs and cut their losses. But they can't drag us back home while we're tainted with alien magic. We'd be a threat to the homeworld if they did that." Lifting her chin, she took note of the shadows playing across on Shuyin's face. He used to be so carefree. Sometimes, she wondered if she did the right thing asking him to be her guardian, drawing him into her worries.

With another sigh, Shuyin lifted her hand to his jaw, pressed his cheek into her hand, and closed his eyes. "Maybe someone should just go to the Founders Headquarters and smack them around until they leave us alone." Then, taking note of how cold her hand felt, he tucked it into his coat pocket with his own hand to warm it.

Lenne folded her fingers between his but chuckled at his suggestion. "No, that would only make things worse. Then they'd _really_ want to do something to us. High Summoner Yevon is focused on winning allies rather than fighting enemies. But I agree with Bahamut that it was unwise to withdraw from negotiations and resist regulations altogether. Yevon will need to step up measures to guard his temple in Bevelle now."

Elder Kinan entered the cavern, bringing a younger ronso with him. The ronso youth had a long white mane that he wore loose without the typical ronso braids and beads, and his eyes shone like pale green gems against the smoke-blue fur on his lion-like face. His cat-like ears bore multiple piercings, and the bracers on his muscular arms glowed with magic. But despite the frigid temperatures and snow, he wore only a purple and white loincloth. The small shaman pouch on his hip and talismans on the sturdy lance he carried also glowed with magic. "Nephew, Zen," the older, larger ronso introduced him to the human trio. "Zen go with you to Zanarkand. Learn teleport magic. Bring back to ronso."

Lenne removed her hand from Shuyin's coat pocket, stood, and bowed in greeting to the youth assigned to join their return trip home. "Nice to meet you, Zen. It will be an honor to escort you back to Zanarkand with us."

The young ronso bowed to his escorts. The party said their final goodbyes to the ronso elder and his village. Then, with Bahamut and Zen in tow, Lenne followed Shuyin back to the dreaded mountain maze.

))((

As dusk settled in, the winds picked up, and the temperature dropped to a very uncomfortable low. Considering they were losing light, and the weather was getting harsh, Lenne seemed more afraid of the dangerous crossroads than before. But this time when they drew near, she didn't argue. With silent determination, she grasped onto Shuyin's arm and tried not to look down, willing to trust his careful pace and sense of direction to guide them safely to the other side.

As before, Shuyin checked behind him to see how her brother was doing first. This time Zen had Bahamut's coat shoulder clutched firmly in his large fist, and his long, sharp toenails dug into the snow and ice like spiked cleats. The small, human boy wasn't going to be blown off of the mountain if the ronso had anything to say about it.

Shuyin was more careful choosing his footing and pace as he led the way back across the natural bridges. Midway through their crossing, however, a couple of large monsters with horns blocked their path. "What the—"

"Behemoths," Zen identified them.

"Whatever they are, they're not alone." Lenne pointed to the pyreflies swarming around them. "They're possessed by fiends. I should summon an aeon."

Shuyin drew his sword. "This path is too narrow for an aeon. Shield your brother," he added, passing his backpack to the boy.

Bahamut cast a protective shell around himself and looked to his sister, apprehensive.

The ronso didn't wait for orders. Zen charged, slashing his lance across one of the monsters' arms. The behemoth raked a clawed hand across the ronso's chest, knocking him back. But, digging his toenails into the ice and snow to stop his skid, Zen lunged forward again, draining some of the monster's energy to heal himself.

Lenne cast a shell over the ronso to aid him.

While one behemoth tackled the ronso, the other came down on the blitzball player with a blast of lightning. Shuyin cursed at the unexpected magic, evaded, spun around, and immediately hopped back within range to strike from behind. He delivered a crippling cut to the behemoth's ribs, but it wasn't enough to take him out. The bi-pedal creature dropped into a quadruped stance and head-butted Shuyin, attempting to gore him.

"_NO!_" Fearing she had already lost him, Lenne ran after them. "Shuyin!"

He hit the ground, rolled, and slid, but thrust his longsword into the tightly packed snow just in time to anchor himself from slipping over the edge of the stone bridge.

The summoner cast a shield around her guardian and grabbed his arm to pull him away from the ledge, but left her back exposed. The behemoth's powerful charge took away Lenne's breath and plowed her into the snow.

"Lenne!" Shuyin's eyes darkened as he scrambled to his feet and jerked his sword free. Throwing himself at the monster, he struck with multiple attacks, forcing it to back away from her with each hit.

The summoner clenched fist-fulls of snow in her frozen fingers and pushed herself up to see what her guardian was doing. Then, she began casting again.

When Zen's lance pierced the heart of the behemoth he was fighting, Bahamut watched the pyreflies disperse around it, then turned his attention to the blitzball player and also began casting.

A strange sensation swept over Shuyin, but he ignored it to keep up the relentless attacks. He didn't notice his hits were cutting deeper and faster than before, to the point where his opponent had no chance at counterstrikes. Rising on its hind legs, the behemoth towered over him, but it was weakened enough that it stumbled. With a final yell of frustration, Shuyin leaped high above the beast and brought his sword down hard, cleaving the creature from shoulder to chest. After landing, he jerked his sword free and kicked the dissolving body and its pyreflies over the edge of the bridge, sending them into the dark, rocky depths below. A quick check toward the ronso let him know that fight had ended, too, so he thrust his sword back into the snow and crouched before Lenne. Too breathless to speak, he grasped her shoulders and touched his forehead to hers, relieved that she was okay. Footsteps crunched in the snow behind him as Zen and Bahamut drew near.

The ronso knelt by the summoner's side and scanned for injuries. There was no blood, but she was clearly in pain.

"My back …" She winced and reached behind herself to where it hurt.

"Heal yourself. We'll wait." Shuyin was still fighting to catch his breath.

"Not until we're somewhere safe. I don't want to waste my energy in case we're attacked again."

"We'll be camping at the hot spring. You can do it there."

She nodded in agreement but grunted in discomfort when she tried to stand.

Shuyin sheathed his sword and knelt with his back to her. "We've got to make it to the hot springs before it becomes pitch black out here. Close your eyes and let me carry you through this area."

"Zen stronger. Zen carry girl," the ronso offered.

Shuyin stubbornly shook his head. "No. I'm her guardian, but she got hurt because I couldn't get back into fight fast enough." Shuyin looked over his shoulder, waiting. "Lenne ..."

Though she hated to see him so hard on himself, gratitude was more appropriate than arguing. Lenne wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned forward against his back. "Thank you, Shuyin."

Hooking his forearms under her knees at his waist, he stood with care and shifted her weight until they were both comfortable enough to continue hiking through the snow. He felt a small kiss on his ear before she rested her cheek against it. Only then did he feel any measure of relief that she had forgiven him. Exhausted from the battle, but thankful everyone was still alive, Shuyin glanced toward Zen and Bahamut, and together they all continued over the high, narrow bridges crisscrossing the mountains into the deepening darkness of night.


	17. Chapter 17: New Friend

Chapter 17: New Friend

Crouched in the snow near the lamplight, Bahamut stared at the pole pieces Shuyin handed to him, but then fit them together in the slip sleeve of the tent canvas. "Very simple," he announced. But when he stood, his assembled end of the frame fell apart. Frowning at the contraption, he looked to Shuyin about what to do next.

The blitzball player laughed. "Told ya. You have to hold the frame up first, _then_ put the canvas over it."

"Zen sees no point in making thin shelter when stone cavern is here," the ronso youth stated from his perch on a rock as he watched the two humans.

"Let's just say it's tradition." Still holding his end of the tent frame, Shuyin waited for Bahamut to finish his.

"Human tradition makes no sense. Zen will hunt." Shaking his head at their folly, the ronso grabbed his lance and headed up one of the winding paths away from the campsite.

"Yeah, because wearing a loincloth in the snow is so much more logical," Shuyin muttered under his breath. It was dark, but the mountain was the ronso's native environment, and Shuyin was dead tired. So he didn't argue about the hunt being part of the tradition, too.

Bahamut pieced the poles together one more time and lifted the frame quickly to keep them together. "I got it!"

"Okay, grab the canvas."

Reaching for it at the same time as Shuyin, the boy gave the canvas a toss over the top of the frame. His end didn't quite make it, but Shuyin's did. And as soon as Shuyin's part was secure, he came to the boy's aid to show him how to bend the pole to punch it into the sleeve. The tent stood. "We did it!"

"Not yet. Get that mallet. We have to stake it, so it doesn't blow away." Shuyin slipped the rain fly over the top, then grabbed the stakes and began setting them in the ring pins. "Hit it real hard."

Bahamut pounded the spike into the ground with all his might, but he didn't make much progress before he grew tired and passed the mallet back to Shuyin. "The ground is frozen. This is going to take forever. But you're stronger than I am, and I know how to make you even stronger, so you should do it."

"Oh yeah? How's that?" Shuyin accepted the mallet and began hammering the spike into the ground with a more focused effort.

Bahamut cast a spell, and the next hit slammed the stake into the frozen ground up to the rope eyelet. The boy smiled to himself at his own cunning, while the blitzball player marveled at his unusual feat.

"How … What did you do to me?" Shuyin tried to tug the thing back out, but it wouldn't budge. "Oh, that's going to be fun to pull out tomorrow. I'm surprised it didn't break."

"It's a spell that increases strength."

Shuyin blinked at him. "That's cheating."

"Should I not use it? It helped you kill the behemoth."

The blitzball player drew back, remembering something. "Is that what that weird feeling was?"

"Huh? If you felt magic in your body, Lenne must have been doing something too. Strength magic is used to enchant weapons. I cast it on your sword and the hammer, not you. Your strength is increased when you use it. But you'll need to have the enchantment done by a mage if you want something like that to be permanent."

"It was a big help. Thanks." Shuyin stared thoughtfully at the enchanted mallet, then set the next stake into the ring pin and drove it into the frozen ground with one hit as well. When the rest of the stakes were done, and the tent was secured, he dropped the mallet into the bag with the other tent supplies and handed Bahamut the ropes to finish tying it down. "Let's go tell your sister it's done."

Bahamut grinned, tied his last knot, and grabbed Shuyin's hand before running into the cavern. "Lenne! Lenne! We got the tent up!"

The summoner had sought comfort for her back in the hot spring but immediately sank further under the water when surprised by their entrance. "Okay. I'll be out in just a minute." She peered over her shoulder, waiting for them to leave first.

"Woah! Woah!" Shuyin pulled the boy back and folded his hands over his eyes.

"Hey! What gives?" Bahamut grabbed the blitzball player's wrists to pry them off, but Shuyin was used to handling slippery blitzballs. Even without uniform gloves, there was no way to escape him once he had a grip.

"Things that might scar you for life if you see them," Shuyin answered.

"Then why aren't you covering your own eyes?"

"Beeecaaaause …" Shuyin drew a blank on excuses for once.

Bahamut sighed in disgust. "If you want to be alone with her, all you have to do is say so."

"So."

"Fine." The boy pulled away as Shuyin released him.

"Go make the campfire like I showed you at the beach. And no cheating with magic, either!"

The boy rolled his eyes at having to pal around with his sister's boyfriend at times like that, but overall he was glad his sister had chosen Shuyin. If not for him, Bahamut knew he would never be able to come on adventures like this. Leaving the cavern and approaching the tent, Bahamut crouched near their prepared spot for the campfire. Shuyin bought special kindling back in Zanarkand at an outdoor sports store because he knew there would be no wood to collect in the snowy peaks. The snow had been cleared away to make space for cooking whatever was caught for dinner, and the tools to start the fire had been set beside it. Bahamut lifted the tools and began an attempt to start the flames the old fashioned way—the way Shuyin taught him on the beach when they grilled their fish. But then he looked back toward the entrance to the hot spring to be sure no one was looking. Shrugging, he dropped the tools to cast a fire spell instead. Satisfied, he sat down and huddled in his blanket to wait for the ronso's return.

))((

Inside the cavern, Shuyin was amused at how Lenne propped her long hair outside of the pool's edge on the ground in an attempt to keep it dry, rather than face freezing temperatures and a wet head with no hairdryer. "Forget to bring a swimsuit?" he teasingly asked as he removed his coat and gloves and placed them next to her pile of clothes. Crouching on his toes behind her, he playfully coiled a ponytail on top of her head until he saw the red bikini ties that answered his question. "Ah, rats. I thought you were slinking under that water for cover."

She giggled at his disappointment. "Well, I wouldn't want to scar you for life. I was soaking my back."

The playful expression faded into concern. "How is it?"

"It's just a bruise now." She waved it off like it was no big deal.

Her dismissal let him know he was right about her odd behavior when he entered. She was hiding something. Suspiciously, gently, he pushed her head forward until he could see her back in the water. A black and blue mark larger than both of his fists put together colored her mid-to-lower spine. He couldn't help but groan at the sight of it.

"It doesn't feel as bad as it looks," she immediately assured him. "It's still a little tender, but the cure spell took away the serious damage, and I'll finish healing it after we're home. No need to waste magic yet … just in case."

Shuyin let Lenne's hair fall to her shoulders and sat down on the rock floor behind her. "If I had aimed for its head or its heart ... Every strike is supposed to prevent a counter strike, but I took a random swipe without really thinking about what I was doing. And then couldn't get back into the fight fast enough."

Ignoring the fact that her hair was in the water now, she turned around to face him and cupped a wet, steamy hand over his mouth. "Shuyin, sometimes bad things just happen. Okay? The behemoth did this to me. You did what you could to stop him." The half of her hair that was now in the water spread around her like a lily frond. "I'm not going to let you be my guardian if you blame yourself every time I get hurt."

He moved her hand to uncover his mouth. "I'm supposed to keep you from getting hurt."

"No. You're supposed to help me accomplish and come back from my mission. And you did."

"My wrong decision could have killed you."

"I wouldn't be here if you hadn't done something right." She could laugh a little about her own fear now that it was over. "I probably wouldn't have even made it over those awful bridges without you. Bahamut certainly wouldn't have been able to carry me back." Her brows rose, and she smiled.

Shuyin removed his boots and set them aside with his coat and gloves. "Bahamut said he enchanted my sword to increase my strength against the behemoth."

"Really? I thought that was an unusually impressive kill."

"But I felt something else, too." He tucked his socks into his boots. "Did you use magic on me without telling me?"

She folded her arms across the top of the shallow pool's wall. "I cast a haste spell to quicken your movements. I haven't done anything like that during your training because I didn't want to interfere while you worked on your own skills. But in a real fight, summoners are trained to support aeons and guardians like that. It's the least I can do in exchange for you becoming my sword and shield. You're not mad, are you?"

"Nah, I … kinda liked it," he hesitantly admitted. "Felt like a massive adrenaline rush that slowed time so I could think about what I was doing. I guess I just have to trust that you won't do anything funky to me in the process. Maybe you should show me what you can do, so I know what to expect next time."

"Okay. And maybe you should learn a few magic tricks of your own to compliment your fighting style. I could teach you a few spells, you know." She crooked her finger for him to come closer as if sharing a secret.

A wry smile touched his lips. "I'm game." Shifting to a squat, balancing on his toes, he placed one hand on the slippery rock edge and leaned over the water to receive a small kiss. He had to brace himself with both hands as she wrapped her arms around his neck, but the added weight threw the awkward balance off and pulled him into the shallow pool. Up to his neck in hot water, his body began an extreme thaw. He grimaced at the merciless sensation, but the painful tingling soon became deliciously relaxing.

Lenne tried to hide a guilty smile, so he didn't recognize it as a prank until she snickered.

Shuyin lifted an arm to see his soaked sleeves but chuckled in spite of it. "_Why?"_

"I wanted you to join me." She grinned and raised a prune-like finger to touch the new, silver Abes earring she had not seen until now under his wet hair.

"You couldn't wait five minutes? I was trying to keep my clothes dry for a reason, you know." Removing his sword, he unsheathed the blade to pour water out of the scabbard. Then, he replaced it and set it on the ground next to his coat while giving her a flat expression that made her laugh.

"Too many layers were taking too long." She splashed a little water into his face.

He blinked the water from his eyes and ran a hand over his face. "You do realize this means I get to sit in here _where it's warm_, while you go out there _where it's cold_ to get me some dry clothes from my backpack."

"No, I have to stay right here where it's safe. There are fiends out there."

"Even little pools can have water fiends." He splashed her back.

"Hm, this water fiend wouldn't happen to be signed on with the Abes, would he?" She giggled and swept her hand through the water, sending a wave toward him.

Laughing at her teasing and deciding he'd had enough of it, he stood and sloshed armfuls of water over her. Lenne screamed and shielded herself, but as she tried to escape the pool, he grabbed her around the waist and fell back into the water with her. "Oh, and he tackles hard! Looks like it's going to be one to nothing for Team Shuyin, folks! Lenne has no escape from that fantastic block! She hates blitzball, but look at her laughing now."

))((

Outside the hot spring, Zen came back with a fresh bandersnatch draped over his back and found Bahamut huddled at the fire by himself. "Shuyin not here?"

"He's hogging the hot water with my sister." Bahamut sourly thumbed over his shoulder toward the cavern entrance where loud laughter, shouts, and splashes could be heard.

"Bahamut is cold?"

The boy nodded.

"Ronso have fail-proof way to make others share." Zen set his kill near the fire and bent to scoop a large handful of snow, packing it into a ball. Considering the size of his hands, this snowball was tremendous.

Catching onto the ronso's idea, Bahamut grinned and copied his actions. When both of them were armed, they stealthily entered the cavern and fired without warning. The ronso's large, frozen missile hit bullseye between Shuyin's shoulder blades, and Bahamut's two smaller ones hit the back of his head and Lenne's shoulder. Both of them gasped in shock as the cold, _cold_ snow clung to them before it melted off with the steam and dropped into the pool.

"You better be glad I had two shirts and thermals on or that would have stung like crazy!" Shuyin shouted when he saw who did it. Water-logged layers and all, he jumped out of the pool raced after them.

Zen quickly pulled the laughing boy back outside.

Shuyin paused to scoop a few snowballs of his own and tagged Bahamut in the back with a couple of quick missiles. But when he scooped another for the ronso, Zen stood before him, an impenetrable force with massive, folded arms and a snarl. Shuyin changed his mind. One final snowball sailed into the back of Shuyin's head from the opposite direction. Cringing at the frozen sensation as it slid down his neck into the back of his wet shirts, he whirled to find Lenne standing inside the entrance of the cavern. "You know, red bikinis kinda paint a target on the space between the top and bottom." He started to aim the snowball meant for the ronso at her, instead.

"Ah-ah-ah ..." She wagged a finger in warning, then wrapped her arms around herself with a shiver. "You promised you wouldn't hit back, remember?"

In the flickering firelight, Bahamut giggled at the way a thick fog rose off of Shuyin's steamy hot clothing and head. "You look like some kind of angry ghost."

Zen looked down at Shuyin's bare feet, which were bright red in the snow. "Shuyin cold?"

"Shuyin's very cold!" The blitzball player visibly shuddered.

"Then Shuyin share hot water with little brother."

The blitzball player looked down at the snowball in his hand. "Okay, fine!" He shivered again, but then shrugged. "What the hell." Shuyin pitched his last snowball at the ronso, then sprinted away. Scooping Lenne into his arms, he ran back into the cavern. She laughed and screamed again as a big splash echoed from the interior.

The ronso dusted the snow from his chest and placed a large, blue hand on the boy's shoulder, pointing Bahamut in the direction of the hot spring. "Humans have no fur. Stay in hot water. Zen tend fire and cook fresh meat."

Bahamut ran inside the cavern, stripped down to his shorts, and jumped into the water with his sister and "big brother" for the splash fest.

The ronso's lion-like face split into a toothy grin at the way the humans played, much more lively than his own people. But he shook his head at how the nearly hairless creatures had no sense about protecting themselves from the mountain's elements. Walking to the tent, he pulled the entire thing out of its staked position. Collapsing it under his arm, frame and all, he carried it out of the wind and snow into the warm, steamy cavern. Then, he returned to the campfire to clean and cook his prey.

))((

Later that night, dressed in new dry layers and wrapped in a blanket, Shuyin ate his dinner of roasted bandersnatch, dried fruit, and hard cheese as he reclined against Lenne's knees at the campfire. Lenne and her brother were also redressed in dry layers and wrapped in blankets, but the ronso remained stoic and bare in the drifting flurries. The wind had died down, at least. They had all been thankful for that.

"Elder Kinan said there were hidden caverns in these mountains," Lenne spoke over the snapping and popping of the fire. "Are there more hot springs like this one?" Setting down her finished plate, she curled cold fingers around her mug of hot coffee.

"Many hidden caverns. Enough to shelter all ronso and half of Zanarkand," Zen informed her. "Some have hot springs. Tunnels run deep into mountains … like maze. If ronso are attacked, winding warrens protect our weak while warriors fight in mountain pass. Hidden ruins above clouds, too, but few dare climb summit."

Shuyin stopped chewing and tilted his chin toward the ronso. "Ruins on top of the mountain?"

"Ancient watchtower. Some say First Age." Zen pointed toward the summit behind them.

Shuyin sat up with interest. "Ooh. Can we go see it?"

"Down, boy." Lenne clapped a hand over his shoulder and pulled him back. Then, she pulled her blanket closer around her as she chewed on the last piece of greasy, smoky meat from her plate. "I've had enough adventure for one day, thank you. Besides, you have training, and your blitzball championship tournament is coming up soon, isn't it? We don't need to invite trouble by exploring old ruins on top of a mountain."

Zen's tail twitched. "Shuyin plays blitzball?"

"Zanarkand Abes," he proudly answered, casting his leftover scraps into the flames.

"Zen visited Zanarkand once before. Watched games. Remember Abes. Good team. Not much interest for blitzball among ronso. No place for sphere pool on Gagazet."

Shuyin nodded at the ronso's logic. "True. But ronso could train and play somewhere else, like Zanarkand. As big as you are, there's no way anyone could sneak past your blocks and tackles."

"Ronso look stupid in human uniforms."

Shuyin snickered at a mental image of the ronso wearing his uniform. Lenne and Bahamut apparently had the same humorous picture in mind because, within seconds, all three of them were giggling at the stoic ronso. "You couldn't fit one leg into my shorts if you tried. I'm serious, though, you should ask about it. I'm sure the stadium management would rent it out to the ronso the same as they do to us."

"Ronso never played. Only watched."

"Well, how about I take you to the pool while you're visiting? Let you see what it's like."

Lenne chuckled. "What are you trying to do? Drown him? You could probably take him to the practice pool, but the sphere pool would be too claustrophobic for someone not used to holding their breath that long."

Zen's pale green eyes lit up at Shuyin's offer. His ears flattened against his head, and he nodded in acceptance of the invitation. "Hot springs sometimes run deep. Zen good at holding breath underwater."

Shuyin grinned. "Sphere pool is it, then."

"Oh, gosh!" Lenne straightened, nearly dropping Shuyin's back in her abrupt shift. "I didn't even think about lodging. Where will he stay? I don't want him to have to pay for a hotel room."

"Maybe there's a vacant guest room at the temple," Bahamut suggested, licking his greasy fingers. "This trip was partially their idea."

"He can stay at my place," Shuyin offered. "I've got a spare room. I don't know if he'll fit in it, but we can try."

"Are you sure?" Lenne asked, not wanting to inconvenience him for the sake of her mission.

He shrugged. "I don't mind. Course I may make him work on the engine and swab the decks since he un-staked my tent, and now I have to put it up all over again before I can sleep in it. I live on a houseboat, by the way." Shuyin waited for inevitable gush of awe.

"Zen not afraid of water. Ronso not afraid of anything."

Not the typical response, but that in itself made Shuyin chuckle.

"Ah, but you haven't seen his clutter," Lenne added before sipping her coffee.

))((

The next morning, Lenne woke huddled in a tight ball between Shuyin's chest and arms. She shivered and tried to snuggle closer into his cozy, fleece clothing for warmth, then smiled to herself and stretched her legs to hook his ankle between her feet. Usually, the ticklish sensation woke him, but this time she had three pairs of socks to compete with. "Darn these layers," she grumbled.

Easing up onto one elbow, she looked over her shoulder. Beneath their shared pile of blankets in the tight quarters, Bahamut's back was to her, but his ribs rose and fell with a gentle rhythm that let her know he was still sleeping rather soundly. Zen slept outside of the tent due to his size and preference for the cavern itself. Facing Shuyin again, she gave him a soft kiss and snickered quietly at his sleepy response. "Good morning," she whispered when his eyes opened as thin slits.

Shuyin smiled and slid his hand over her waist to draw her closer.

"No, no, no," she whispered, tapping a finger to his nose to stop him. "I think the sun's up outside the cavern. It seems brighter."

"You woke me up to tell me that?" He rolled his back to her.

"These sleeping bags are useless against this rock floor, and I'm freezing my backside off in spite of all the blankets." She grabbed the back of his heavy shirt and buried her cold, red nose into it. "Camping was fun, but going home would be even more fun now, wouldn't it?" she hinted.

"I offered to warm you up," he drowsily muttered.

She frowned at the back of his shaggy, blond head, then used one hand to pull all three shirts away from his back, so she could plant the other ice-cold hand on the middle of his well-insulated bare skin, thus demonstrating one point in her complaint.

"Holy shhhh—" Shuyin jerked away from her as much as the zipped trio of sleeping bags would allow and turned to block her before she could perform the same stunt on his chest. "Your fingers are like ice!" He shuddered as the chill spread across his entire torso with discomfort.

She giggled. "See? I'm freezing." The smile turned into mild disappointment. "And my back is killing me. I really need to finish healing it."

He quieted with what appeared to be sympathy. "Or I could just throw you back in the hot spring."

Lenne reached for his shirts again, and with only a brief tussle, her icy hand hit his ribs.

"Okay! Okay!" Shuyin scrambled and crawled out of his side of the sleeping bags to get away from her. "Home it is." Rising to his knees, he bumped his head against the low ceiling of the tent, but quickly pulled his shirts back into place to shield himself from another attack.

"I'm sorry, Shu." She sat up with a wince and put a hand to her bruised spine. "I know you're enjoying this, and so is my brother. And I had fun, too. But …"

"What kind of guardian would I be if I insisted on something that caused you pain?" He gave her a sleepy smile. Then, stretching a leg over her, he placed a foot on Bahamut's back and rolled the boy back and forth. "Hey, you." The blitzball player didn't stop until the kid rolled over on his own and gave him a grumpy face. "Your sister's ready to go home. Pack up, or I'm packing you in the tent bag with the rest of the gear."

The boy rubbed his sleepy eyes. "Can we come back without her?"

Shuyin chuckled and began unzipping their combined fortification of warmth against the nighttime lows. "After the playoffs, okay? Count on it. Hey, maybe we can check out those ruins."

Bahamut grinned and nodded in eager agreement as he sat up.

Lenne unzipped both middle portions of their sleeping bags and began folding and rolling the blankets. "We can take him home first, and I'll just shower and finish taking care of my back at mom's place. Then, I can come by your boat to pick up Zen to take him to meet High Summoner Yevon."

"Why not let's all go to the temple first? Then I can take Bahamut and Zen back to the harbor with me, and you can crash at your place for the rest of the day."

"I am _not_ presenting myself to the high summoner looking like this."

"Well, look at the bright side." Shuyin chuckled. "For once, no one will recognize you without your disguise." As soon as he said it, he had to dodge her swipe.

))((

Back inside the city limits, the party of four opted to go to Shuyin's houseboat first, and he showed the Zen the lower level bedroom that used to belong to his parents. The ronso barely fit on the bed diagonally, but he seemed pleased to have such an interesting place to stay.

"Oh, and … a little gift." The blitzball player ran back to his own room and grabbed his red-and-black-checkered uniform and a spare blitzball he had lying around. He took both of them back down to the ronso and presented them to him. "There you go. Something to refashion into a new loincloth for the sphere pool," he joked. "Welcome to Zanarkand."

Zen grinned—something that almost frightened Shuyin since he'd never seen a ronso grin before. "Thank you. Zen never forget Shuyin." He thumped his fist over his heart, then thumped Shuyin's chest in a similar manner, nearly knocking him backward into the wall.

Shuyin mouthed an "ow" and rubbed his chest where he'd received the friendly punch. Maybe inviting the ronso to play blitzball wasn't a good idea after all. He began to doubt whether he would survive his tackles.

After hot showers and a change into everyday attire, the humans of the group were happy to set aside their heavy packs and escort their ronso guest to the temple.

))((

When the party of four presented themselves to the summoners in charge, Lenne explained the ronso's presence, and they were escorted to the office of High Summoner Yu Yevon. Shuyin had never met the man in person, but he looked exactly like he did in any holograph or com sphere image he'd seen. Dressed in flowing, immaculate robes of white and green, Yevon wore his long black hair tied in a jeweled cuff that hung low at his shoulders, while loose tendrils fell free at his ears. A thin, black goatee adorned his mouth and chin, and his narrow eyes, an unusual lavender color, showed the stress of his political burdens in the form of dark, sullen circles. This was an incredibly intelligent man, one that almost radiated power to anyone standing in his presence.

Lenne introduced her guardian and guest, and Yevon greeted them warmly. He listened quietly without interruption as she summarized their excursion to Mt. Gagazet. When she finished, he smiled and seated himself at a tea table, gesturing for everyone else to join him. "Your actions speak well of you as a temple ambassador, Lady Lenne."

"Thank you, sir." She bowed respectfully before taking the chair opposite him and gestured for the ronso to sit next to her. Bahamut and Shuyin took their places on the sofa across from them.

"I am more than happy to allow Zen to train in teleportation magic, here at the temple," Yevon continued. "And I think having gates in the mountain pass will benefit all of Spira. Allowing the ronso to create and keep watch over them ensures their own safety, so there is no breach of trust. At least not on Zanarkand's behalf," he added with a hint of remorse that he could not make promises for the governors of other cities. "I will leave our guest in your capable hands, for tutoring and accommodations. Let us know if he requires anything during his stay."

Lenne smiled and nodded in return. "I will, My Lord."

"And what of your experience on this journey, apprentice?" Yevon turned his attention to Bahamut. "What were your impressions of the ronso?"

Bahamut looked to Zen and smiled. "They are a people of action more than words, but their actions speak for themselves. They are reasonable and honorable. Their lives are humble, but their heritage is proud, like the mountain they protect. It will be good to have the ronso as friends and allies."

Yevon smiled again. "Well-said. A summoner must learn to seek the connections between the people and their land … even here on Spira. Did you enjoy this kind of assignment?"

Bahamut grinned at Shuyin. "I did!"

Yevon took note of who the boy directed his enthusiasm toward and nodded in gratitude to the guardian who, apparently, made a difference. Then, he turned his attention back to Lenne. "There is one other thing I wanted to speak with you about before you go. The temples require a stronger defense in these uncertain times. I am seeking summoners for special assignments. You, Lenne, are among my most gifted disciples. Your management of this task confirms my thoughts that you are capable of handling … 'adventurous' missions. Would you be interested in accompanying my daughter, Yunalesca, to one of the other temples to become an honored guardian stationed there?"

Lenne's eyes lit with excitement. "Which one?"

"I believe you are our best candidate to handle the defense of the temple in Bevelle."

Shuyin's heart skipped a beat. "Bevelle? You're sending her away to Bevelle?"

Yevon turned his attention to the guardian. "You think she is not capable of this task?"

"No, sir. I mean, I think she's capable. But ... Bevelle?"

Yevon shifted in his padded chair and stared at Shuyin, visualizing something else for a moment. "I recognize you now. You're Jecht's son. You go by a different name in the sport."

Shuyin had not considered that the high summoner might be a blitzball fan. "Um … yeah."

"Why do you not want her to go to Bevelle? She can take you along if she chooses. Of course … that would mean giving up your blitzball here."

Shuyin didn't know whether he was really being invited to speak his mind or if Yevon was merely trying to make him feel included in the conversation. But he decided this was important enough to speak up. "Bevelle despises magic. I think it would be stupid to send her there as a summoner against their wishes."

Lenne frowned, reminding him to mind his manners because of who he was talking to.

Yevon didn't seem upset to hear the blunt opinion, but he studied Shuyin with an intensity that made the blitzball player uncomfortable. "Well, I trust you won't assault me if I disagree with you about the 'stupid' part." A small smile touched his lips, following the reference to the very publicized incident with the drunk. "You are correct that the Bevelle temple is in a tight spot at the moment. But that is exactly why it needs someone like Lenne to protect it. A summoner takes her job knowing it means having to defend others who cannot defend themselves—a vow guardians should also be very familiar with. If you are not willing to fight by your summoner's side, you should step out of her way."

Shuyin's brows dipped. "Wouldn't it be safer to pull all summoners out of Bevelle?"

"And let Bevelle and the rest of Spira fall prey to the Founders' intentions toward us?"

"_You're_ not the one guarding the temple."

"Shuyin," Lenne scolded.

Yevon met Lenne's worry and Shuyin's concern with a tempered nod and a raised palm. "It's alright. Let him speak. Perhaps it would ease your guardian's fears to know I've decided to place a new aeon within each temple, in case the local summoners need an immediate defense. Yunalesca is currently in Besaid, creating an aeon for that temple, so you don't need to make a decision right now. Give it some thought. But I offer you the promotion as Bevelle's most honored protector because I believe you are capable of handling one of our most delicate situations. We need someone to protect the temple's summoners from the Founders while continuing to protect the city itself from fiends."

"I ..." Lenne looked at Shuyin. Whatever decision she made for herself now affected his life, too. And he clearly wasn't happy with this.

"You must be fully committed to this position if you take it, Lenne," Yevon advised. "Give me your answer only when you are certain. Just remember that the summoners within the Bevelle temple are in danger until it is fortified."

Though the high summoner seemed friendly enough, Shuyin thought he understood now why Bevelle disliked this man. There was no negotiating or compromise once his mind was made up.


	18. Chapter 18: A Day to Never Forget

Chapter 18: A Day to Never Forget

Clearly troubled, Shuyin set the heavy backpack down on Lenne's sofa but lingered over it, hesitant to say what was bothering him. "I don't want you to go to Bevelle." He hadn't said one word about their discussion with the high summoner since leaving the temple, until now. Bahamut had been deposited safely back into the arms of his mother and his aunt. Zen was napping at the houseboat. So, Shuyin had offered to help Lenne carry her camping gear back to her apartment. The offer was partly an excuse to talk to her about the transfer, but talking about it in private was almost as uncomfortable as _not_ talking about it while in the presence of others. "Zanarkand is your home. This is where your singing career is. You've got fans here. Your family is here. Everything you need is here in Zanarkand."

Lenne dropped her key-card into the basket on the table and closed her front door. Kicking off her shoes next to his in the entry, she sighed and padded across the living room to where he stood. "Everything, including you?"

Shuyin winced, knowing how this must sound, and his tone softened in apology. "I'm not asking you to stay for me."

Sitting on her sofa, she tucked a foot underneath her leg. "Then, I have to consider going where I'm needed. The summoners at the other temples are newer to the rites of summoning than the ones here in Zanarkand. Lord Yevon's been working with us most of our lives, but he's only set up the other temples within the last five years. He probably needs me to teach them how to summon the new aeons. And until they learn how to do that themselves, they'll need a summoner strong enough to do it for them. If that aeon is their only defense, should the temple be ..." She paused, not wanting to admit the element of danger involved in the promotion. "Someone needs to defend the defenders of Bevelle. If there are no summoners, the city will be overrun with fiends."

"Why does it have to be you? I don't like the way he talked about it."

She tilted her chin. "The way he talked about it?"

"The way he smiled and flattered you … The way he told me I could go along _if_ you wished to take me, but then told me to otherwise get out of your way. He doesn't want me to go with you."

Lenne quirked a brow at this unusual complaint. "He wasn't flattering me. He was letting me know I did a good job on this assignment, so he trusts me to do another. And he was honest with you about the teamwork necessary between summoner and guardian when changes take place."

"It's just ..." Shuyin ran a hand over his head and paced as he tried hard to find the right words. This was important to her, so if he said the wrong thing, it would hurt. "It sounds suspicious, you know? Asking a summoner to be a guardian ... Didn't something about that creep you out?"

"Creep me out? This is High Summoner Yevon we're talking about."

"I just can't shake the feeling he's trying to take advantage of you."

She snorted in disbelief. "Shuyin, what planet did you just come from? He's old enough to be my father. And I'm going to be taking the trip with his daughter, not him."

He frowned in disgust. "Not that kind of advantage."

"Are you jealous?"

"No!" He shook his head in firm denial and dropped onto the sofa beside her. "Look, I know it's a promotion and an honor and all that, but you said it yourself. Summoners aren't supposed to be warriors. That's why you have guardians. As your guardian, I'm supposed to let you know when something feels wrong … right?" His brows rose with his plea. "And you're supposed to trust me."

She couldn't understand why he felt so opposed to this. "Would you go with me if I asked?"

"I'll go wherever you want, even if it means quitting the Abes. Just please don't take this position at Bevelle."

It bothered her he would feel so strongly about this without good reason. "I'll ask a few more questions before I make a decision. Okay?"

Folding his arms around her, he kissed her forehead and sighed with relief, but her answer didn't make him feel any better about it. "Take care of your back and get some rest. If you need anything, let me know, okay?"

She nodded, kissed him, and let him go as he stood.

Not knowing what else to say, and feeling horribly confused about his own sudden flux of emotion, Shuyin headed to the door, slipped into his sneakers, and let himself out of her apartment. As he took the lift down to the ground floor, he wondered if he was imagining things. As he walked to the "snake" station, he asked himself if maybe he was jealous. Yu Yevon was the most powerful man in Zanarkand—possibly all of Spira. Lenne clearly had a lot of respect for him. That was more than Shuyin had to offer with a sunny smile and a joke or two. As he took the invisible, high-speed transport from the mainland to the harbor, Shuyin questioned whether he was being selfish. Of course, he wanted her to stay in Zanarkand for his sake! But as he walked down the docks toward his home on the water, Shuyin knew that none of that was what truly bothered him. When Yevon spoke of Bevelle, something about those piercing lavender eyes raised the hair on the back of Shuyin's neck and tied his stomach in knots. And when they disagreed, the blitzball player felt as if the high summoner was looking straight through him.

))((

Zen worked hard learning about teleportation magic at the temple during the days but joined the evening training sessions when Shuyin drove the boat to the beach. The ronso knew how to assess his opponents well and often learned how to mimic their battle moves. So he often sparred with Shuyin, sharing ronso tricks of the trade - in particular, how to use a well-grounded weapon as a tool for a variety of acrobatic maneuvers. Lenne fortified Shuyin with her magic during his mock battles and taught him a few basic spells to enhance his natural abilities. She introduced the ronso to her aeons, and he enjoyed testing his prowess against whichever creature she threw at him. There were still more losses than wins, but Zen and Shuyin learned how to work as a team to bring down some of the strongest ones.

As promised, Shuyin invited Zen into the sphere pool during a few Abes practices. The blitzball player was curious to see how much damage the ronso could inflict with a tackle in the water, but his tired, sore body regretted it by the time practice was done. Though Zen's cat-like face rarely expressed pleasure, he seemed happy to be among humans.

Time passed. Zen started taking trips home to demonstrate what he had learned in Zanarkand, and the ronso began their preliminary steps toward installing teleportation gates throughout Mt. Gagazet. Lenne had not heard back from Yevon concerning Yunalesca's return from Besaid, so she avoided discussing Bevelle with Shuyin until she had more information. And before Shuyin knew it, his first year as a professional blitzball athlete was nearly over. The Abes were favored to win the Jecht Memorial Cup finals against the Duggles. Expectations soared for the son of the man for whom the tournament was named. Contract negotiations for the next season depended on this win.

))((

On the night before the final game of the championship, Lenne came out of the houseboat after some intensive study on advanced summoning, and Bahamut ran to grab her hand. "Lenne! Lenne! You have to see Shuyin's new trick!"

"Did he defeat the last aeon?"

"Yep! But he's been practicing against other targets Zen set up for him until you could summon another. Zen showed him how to do this really cool thing with his sword and—"

"Okay, okay." She laughed, curious about what could spark so much fervor in her quiet little brother, and allowed herself to be tugged back to the beach where the ronso was standing a large driftwood log in the sand. A tired-looking Shuyin was volleying a blitzball. "I hear you have a new trick," she said, baiting him into showing off as she approached.

Shuyin bumped the ball once more with his head, caught it, and tossed it to her. "Throw it as high as you can." Casting a brief, simple spell on himself, he grabbed his sword and repositioned it, sticking it firmly down into the sand. "Aim for the area above and a little in front of the sword." Magic swirled around him as he backed away and waited.

"Well, at least you're asking to play fetch with a ball, instead of a stick," she teased.

"Just don't call me a Shih Tzu and threaten to put ribbons in my hair."

"Hm … I was thinking Maltese." She smirked and fluffed imaginary bangs over her eyes, imitating his.

He was humored. "Just throw the ball."

Lenne smiled as she backed away, but then paused to consider the strength and angle needed before throwing it as high as she could above the sword. As she released the pitch, Shuyin sprang forward and used the sword's pommel to vault after the air-born ball. She recognized the set-up for a sphere shot, but when he flipped into the phenomenal arc and kicked it, the ball exploded into the deadwood target, splintering it to pieces. When the initial smoke cleared, what remained was in flames.

As Shuyin landed on his feet, the ronso ran after the ball, checked it for damages, then pitched it back to him with a throw that nearly smoked his hand, too. Shuyin quickly withdrew his attempt to catch it, popped a friction-burned finger into his mouth, and jogged after it.

"Wow!" Lenne walked to the burning driftwood and stared at all the debris around it. "Wow, that was like a mini-fireball! Have you been learning elemental magic?"

"I earned a wow." Shuyin grinned with pride as he came back to her, ball in hand, overhand, underhand, spinning ... "Strength enhancement and a few things Zen showed me for maximizing energy in motion. It's more of a fiend trick than true magic."

"That could do some serious damage to a fiend."

"What fiend? That's for the tournament."

Lenne laughed. "I don't think they'll allow a sword in the sphere pool."

Setting the ball on the sand and sitting on the ball, Shuyin exhaled and dropped his head for a moment of rest. Zen pushed over the burning log and used sand to douse the flames.

"You look exhausted." Lenne crouched before him and brushed the sweaty hair from his eyes. "You won't play well tomorrow if you burn out tonight."

Shuyin lifted his chin as the ronso and the boy drew near. "Everyone's going to want to see the Jecht shot. I mean, the tournament is named for him, for crying out loud. I tried doing it again, but … I just can't." He sighed in discouragement. "This is the biggest game of my life so far. I need something to take its place."

"All these years later and you are still trying to outdo your father. You are, without a doubt, the most stubborn person I know."

"They won't forget about it. How can I?"

Bahamut yawned, sat in the sand beside his blitzball hero, and picked up a piece of burnt wood. Stirring it in the sand, he started writing magic symbols. "You should do the one that rains energy into the ground. That one's really cool."

Shuyin had to think for a moment to remember which stunt he was talking about. "Nah, that one's definitely for fiends."

"Well, I think you should just keep doing what you've been doing. It's worked so far." Lenne straightened and tugged his hand, coaxing him to do the same. "Let's go home, so you can get some rest before the big game."

"You heard her. Back to the boat, so we can head home." Shuyin flicked the blitzball to Bahamut and shooed the boy toward the pier. The ronso left the charred, smoking log and followed behind the boy. Shuyin put out their campfire and retrieved his sword.

Lenne slipped an arm around his waist and lagged behind their other two companions as they crossed the beach. The breeze coming off of the ocean stirred the air with a salty scent, and a full moon lit their path toward the pier. She smiled, resting her head on his shoulder, and listened to the gentle waves lapping against the dock posts and the sides of the boat. "How about a drink? Something nice and cold?"

Crossing onto the deck, Shuyin pulled the plank back in to prepare for the drive back to the harbor. "Just water."

Lenne followed her brother and the ronso inside. "Zen, could you make sure he doesn't get sand on the furniture?"

The ronso hefted the small human boy to his shoulder and dusted him thoroughly, despite his squirming giggles, before depositing him back on the rug.

After filling two glasses with ice water, Lenne returned to the deck, where Shuyin was raising the anchor. "Bahamut's already talking about seeing those ruins on top of the mountain after the championship. Were you serious about taking him up there? That's kind of risky, don't you think?"

Shuyin drank the refreshing liquid without taking a breath between gulps, and when it was gone, he used the glass to cool his brow. "I gave him my word. I think he'd enjoy the challenge of going up there to see it, but I won't take him inside … probably infested with fiends. Some risks are worth taking, but I'm not that stupid." He stared at the empty glass in his hand for a long moment, then lifted his eyes to hers and gently drew some of her loose hair over her shoulder as he sat back against the rail. "You know, I've been thinking about this whole Bevelle transfer thing."

Lenne sighed, not wanting to talk about it. "You need to focus on your game tomorrow."

"Just hear me out. You asked me to be your guardian, but I can't protect you if you're not with me. You're back and forth between your place and mine a lot, but you spend most of your time here. Because you like it here … right? You can summon your aeons for my training and let your hair down instead of hiding beneath that ugly hat."

She laughed lightly. "I _like_ my ugly hat, thank you."

"But if you lived here, you could do all that, have the sun and the water, and the boat could dock at any harbor near any temple. And then I could bring it back here for blitzball. So, wouldn't it be easier if you just ... lived here?"

Lenne's brows rose. This definitely wasn't the conversation she expected.

"I mean, I'll understand if you'd rather not. But it feels like something's missing when you go home. I guess I kinda have it in my head that this is your home now, too. Here … with me." Brushing a long, loose tendril of hair behind her ear, he smiled at the stubborn little strip in the middle of her forehead that always escaped because it was shorter than the rest. Eyes locked onto hers, he searched for an answer in her expression before she spoke.

"You would move the boat to Bevelle?" The more that she thought about it, the more it seemed like the perfect solution. Lenne reached to his neck, drew him into a hug, and blinked back tears. "You have no idea how much this means to me. I'll bring all my stuff over after the game, and we'll celebrate—win or lose."

"_All_ your stuff? _All_ of it?" He pulled back with a playful wince, but then gave her a kiss and dried the tear on her cheek. "Day after the tournament. Something to look forward to, even if we lose." Straightening from his position against the rail, he embraced her again. "I don't care where I go, as long as I can be with you. I love you … Lenne," he added, speaking her name as if there was delicate magic in it.

))((

The atmosphere within the packed stadium on the day of the tournament was electric. People from all over Spira came to see Zanarkand's best blitzball teams battle it out for the Jecht Cup. Lenne, Shuyin, Zen, and Bahamut entered the stadium together and paused a short distance from the back doors to the locker rooms where scores of fans clustered awaiting the appearance of any player.

"Good luck. We'll be in our usual place. Run, before they recognize who you are." Lenne pursed her lips for a quick kiss.

Shuyin answered her request and slapped a high-five with Bahamut and Zen before jogging into the throng of blitzball fans. Dressed in a yellow-and-blue, long-sleeved T-shirt with a small Abes logo, and a pair of ordinary jeans, he almost made it to the door before people realized he wasn't just another face in the crowd. The minute he was recognized, shouts and excited screams turned the crowd's attention on him until he was surrounded. He appeased as many autograph seekers and sphere recorders as he could on his push to the entrance, but after his shirt was snagged by a few overzealous fans, he was glad to finally make it behind closed doors. He'd never seen that many fans in his life!

Exhaling with amazement at the sheer number of people attending, Shuyin headed down the hall and turned his focus to why he was here. It was time to put on his game face. Opening the Abes' locker room door, he went straight to his locker and hung his duffle bag from it. Kicking off his sneakers and placing them in his locker, he stripped down to his blue athletic shorts and tucked his street clothes into the locker for safekeeping to wear home after the game.

"Toma! He's here!" Naya called toward the back stairs.

"It's about time," Toma called from the top of the stairs where he was recording the pre-game activities near the sphere pool. "Hey, Jecht Jr. Since it's your first time up for the Jecht Cup, they've decided you're the one greeting the fans and throwing the ball into the sphere pool tonight—to honor your dad, and all that."

"Yeah, be careful not to throw out an arm giving that ball a toss, or we might just have to bench you," Kiryl sarcastically added from the stairs.

The other players chuckled.

"Well, in that case, I'll throw it in some sissy-ass, underhanded manner like you would." Shuyin smirked as he donned black shorts and a yellow hoodie. More laughter and a few "ooohs" rose from his teammates as they kidded their way out of their pre-game jitters. When he was finished dressing in his uniform, Shuyin checked his gameplay notebook and shoved it back in his locker. Then he locked the door and inspected his shoulder guard to be sure it was strapped on tight. With only a few minutes to go, he went to one of the shower stalls and stood under a stream of cold water for a few seconds, hoping the temperature shock would keep his nerves under control.

His coach approached and passed the blitzball to him, giving him a proud slap on the back. "No daredevil stunts up on the axis this time. Keep it clean and safe. You'll have plenty of opportunity for stunts in the pool." He paused before walking away. "Oh, um, you didn't happen to work on that little trick that we talked about, did you?"

"I can't do it." Shuyin turned off the water.

"Okay, no problem." His coach smiled but was subtly disappointed. "Just thought that would be a cool surprise to show off for the Jecht Cup finals if you could."

Leaving the shower and locker room, Shuyin climbed the stairs and waded through the calf-high water of the sphere pool's central axis to sit on the support bridge with a sigh. Tucking the ball between his feet and under the bench, he took one look at the distant signs of life surrounding him in the dark, enormous stadium, then he leaned his head back against the wall of the axis and closed his eyes to wait.

"Are you nervous?" Toma asked, still recording.

"Nah, just thinking of what I'm going to rename that cup once it's ours."

Toma chuckled and headed back to the stairs to join the pre-game huddle and leave their star player alone with his pre-game thoughts. The noise of the crowd fell silent to Shuyin's ears until the only thing he heard was the beating of his own heart. Tonight, his game had to be flawless. Tonight, he had to be Jecht's son—just for one night. _No ..._ His eyes opened as the axis machina started to hum. _Tonight belongs to Tidus. I own this pool now, and I can win this thing if you stay out of it, Old Man. That's the only thing that matters tonight—a win_.

The lights flashed on, and the music started, letting everyone know that it was time for the game to begin. The crowd roared as a water spell was generated in the center of the bowl-shaped arena floor. The vertical axis ring lifted as the cybernet activated, and the stadium dome split, unfolding and opening to the stars. On cue, Jecht's son stood from his resting place on the central axis and stepped up on one of the small, raised platforms within the machina ring. Blitzball tucked underhand, he was the center of attention to thousands of adoring fans.

The water spell finished forming with the dramatic flair of a fireworks display, the laser lines blinked on inside the pool, and the scoreboard lit up. Shuyin's introduction to the crowd was drowned out, but everyone knew who he was anyway, so it didn't matter. He waved to the packed stadium and searched for his friends' faces in their usual seating. Lenne and Bahamut cheered as enthusiastically as any other die-hard blitzball fans. Zen remained calm as he stood and watched, but his tail twitched in anticipation.

A loud whistle blew from the stadium speakers. Jecht, Jr. held up the ball for the whole stadium to see. With an impish grin, he waited for the cheers to turn into shouts encouraging him to throw it in. Then, he drew his right arm back and catapulted the ball into the sphere pool. The crowd went wild. He waited just long enough to be rejoined by his teammates on the central ring, before jogging toward the designated entry in the cybernet and punching through it to swim to his right forward position. Another whistle was blown, and the ball went into play.

))((

Lenne leaned toward her brother's ear to speak above the cheers. "What do you say that we take him to a really, really nice restaurant tonight if the Abes win, huh?"

Bahamut jumped up, engrossed in something that wowed the rest of the crowd, too. The star of the Abes had just broken free of a tackle and punched another player with such force that he went right through the cyber-net that held the water in its large, spherical shape.

Lenne gasped as a cold gush of water sprayed onto them, and the outcast player's back hit the concrete buffer between the balcony and the row below it. Looking back to the sphere pool and the Abes player's impertinent grin, the summoner frowned. This was why she never liked this game until she met him. Bending over the back of her seat, she helped the ejected player stand and quickly checked him for visible injuries. "I'm so sorry!" she loudly apologized over the cheers as she cast a couple of cure spells on him. "I'm sure he didn't mean it! He's a really nice guy when he's not playing this game!" The player seemed to think she was crazy but nodded his appreciation before limping back to the sphere pool. "Feel better soon!"

"Lenne!" Bahamut pulled her back around in her seat. "Stop being nice to the other team! It's embarrassing!"

Put in her place about her social etiquette being contrary to this sport, Lenne snorted in offense and folded her arms at her chest. But when the Abes scored the first point of the game, they both stood in their seats to imitate Shuyin's well-known victory dance. Zen remained as stoic as ever, but he did grin and let the small boy give him a big high-five.

Back in play, the ball was passed multiple times before someone shot it out of and above the sphere pool. Shuyin sped toward the surface and broke through the water wall like a leaping dolphin. As he soared high, arching backward in one fluid movement ready to dominate the impossible shot, Lenne yelled with excitement and anxiously awaited another goal for the Abes.

Suddenly, multiple explosions were heard above and around the stadium.

The summoner stopped dancing in her seat, took her eyes off of the game, and looked around in confusion. Whatever just happened, it was big enough to be heard above the roar of the crowd and the blaring music.

"Oh my god! The pool's collapsing! Run!" someone nearby shouted.

Lenne looked up. There was a long, low creak of impending doom from the machina supports and girders overhead. The cross-axis rings that formed the boundaries of the sphere pool shook and tilted. The magic spells that held the cybernet in place had dissolved, and the sphere pool's bottom began to fall apart. The water from the large pool formed a tidal wave that bore down on everything below it, instantly flooding the ground level, but then a wall of water from the sea crashed down on the stadium, as well, crumbling it to pieces and washing away everything in its path.

"Shuyin!" Lenne looked to the sky, but he was no longer there. She had not seen him hit the ground with the sphere pool and all the other players. With water rushing around her shoulders, she was forced to swim for the entrance with everyone else escaping the doomed building. "Shuyin!" she screamed once more before turning to look for her little brother and their ronso friend. Both were present and near, but the water was rapidly rising as the stadium sank into the sea. Bahamut started to slip under when Zen reached for the boy and pulled him onto his back above the water level.

Another explosion rocked the stadium. This time flames and waves of blistering heat billowed out from the remains of the stadium's ceiling, and the open sky revealed the arrival of warships. Zanarkand was under attack.

"Shuyin!" Lenne screamed for him one more time, hoping to see his head bobbing above the water among the people struggling to escape.

"Shuyin good swimmer!" The ronso reminded her as he held tightly to Bahamut. "We go to safe place!" Zen grabbed Lenne's arm and pulled her behind him, pushing aside anything that got in his way.

Against her will, Lenne was dragged out of the sphere pool arena to seek solid ground outside the stadium.

))((

Shuyin had seen the missiles fired and witnessed the towers erupting in one explosion after another until the tidal wave from the attack crashed down on the city in a macabre attempt to put out the flames with a flood. He saw it because when the sphere pool collapsed, he was above it. And when he started to fall back down, he caught hold of the vertical axis high above the open arena. As he struggled to hang on, Zanarkand began to crumble and wash away right before his eyes. Lenne was down there! War with Bevelle was inevitable now.

When the second bomb struck the stadium, it jarred his hold enough that his fingers slipped. The blitzball player fell, plunging into the cold, dark water that had flooded the stadium. Visibility under seawater at night was extremely low. He was barely able to see the bodies of the other players and hundreds of spectators on the ground level, but some of the stadium lighting had not blown out yet. Had he not done that sphere shot when he did—had he fallen only a few seconds sooner—he would have died with the rest of them. Frantic with concern for Lenne, Bahamut, and Zen, Shuyin swam toward the submerged section where they were supposed to be seated. The stands were littered with the bodies of drowned or otherwise injured victims. He didn't see his friends among them, but that hardly eased his mind about their safety.

Leaving the grisly scene, he swam for the exit where a multitude of people pushed and shoved to escape the flood before lung capacity failed them. Making the most of his underwater advantage, Shuyin pushed between them and began grabbing drowning spectators in whatever hold he could manage to rush them to the surface. As soon as one victim was gasping for air, he dove for another, but there were simply too many people for one person to rescue before time and air ran out. Some drowned in his arms before he could get them to the surface. Others could not swim after he took them up there. Eventually, none of the bodies visible under the surface struggled anymore.

Exertion and panic stressed his own lung capacity to the limit. In despair, Shuyin surfaced to cough up seawater and catch his breath. While treading water, he watched the tip of the Zanarkand stadium sink beneath the sea and turned to scan the faces of the survivors that swam or floated among the wreckage. He didn't see his friends among the living, but he couldn't accept that they might be somewhere out there among the dead. He couldn't bear to lose anyone else dear to him. He just couldn't.

"Shuyin!" someone shouted.

Seeking the source of the distant cry, he spotted three heads bobbing above the cold water. One of the silhouettes had cat-like ears, and another was small enough to be a child. Overwhelmed with relief, he swam toward them as fast as he could.

"You're alright!" Lenne sobbed, latching onto him the minute he was close enough to touch. "I'm so glad you're alright!" Burying her face into his neck, she clung to him as if he were a life vest.

He could tell she was weary from trying to stay afloat, but he was also tired. Holding onto each other would only put both of them at risk. Shuyin looked to Zen for help, but the ronso was struggling to help the boy. The closest available surface was a fallen building that lay across one of the floating bridges. Both were in danger of sinking, but they would do for now. Signaling Zen to follow, Shuyin found the strength to swim to it.

Having a little more energy and a little less weight to carry, the ronso swam ahead and pushed the human boy up onto the ledge of broken concrete. Then, he pulled himself out of the water and helped Shuyin draw Lenne over the edge. When they were safe, Shuyin clasped onto the ronso's arm and was lifted out of the sea, as well. Then, he knelt before Lenne and pulled her into his arms, holding her for a moment, just grateful he had not lost her.

"What's happening?" Bahamut coughed and cried.

"Someone attacked the city," Shuyin quietly answered. Lenne drew her brother into her arms so that the three of them huddled, shivering on the concrete island amid the burning flood. "The whole team's gone," he reported, finally allowing himself to feel the overwhelming loss of life. "Naya, Luperis, Shaft ... every one of them. Coach ... The fans ... I tried to save some, but ..." His voice broke, and he stopped talking to try to control and wipe away the tears.

"How do we get home?" Bahamut cried. "Is Mom okay?"

Shuyin paused in his lament, sniffled, and lifted his eyes toward the harbor. His houseboat was gone, and for that matter, so were the piers. The buildings beyond the port now looked like broken ruins. "We have to make our way to the mainland. Can you swim to that thing sticking up out of the water over there?" He had no idea what the thing used to be. With everything sunk, collapsed, crumbled, and on fire, he hardly recognized Zanarkand any more.

"I think so." The boy shivered, cold and wet in the night air.

Shuyin looked to Lenne. "Can you make it, or do you need me to carry you?"

"We can't leave yet." Lenne shook her head as she clung to him. "People are still trapped underwater and in burning buildings. They need your help, Shu. You're the best swimmer out here."

"I don't want to leave you," he protested.

"I'm fine. But more people will die without your help."

Shuyin reluctantly compromised. "If you take Bahamut home and check on Meri, I'll stay here and help as many as I can."

"Shuyin take drowning people to shore," the ronso spoke. "Zen take Lenne and Bahamut home. Take injured people on shore to temple."

Lenne wiped at her tears and nodded in agreement. "The temple will be full of people needing help. I'll meet you there after I take Bahamut home. But I don't want you out here doing this alone." The nearly drowned summoner rose to her knees. Spreading her arms, she summoned her wand. The magical wards that came together at her call formed a large, blue bird of prey with long red and purple feathers. "Help us! Please!"

As the aeon took flight, Shuyin dove into the water. "Make sure they're someplace safe before you come back to me," he called back to Zen, hating to turn his back on them. But he would honor Lenne's request to keep looking for survivors. After all, that could have been her out there, trapped and desperate for help.

Hindered by lack of light, cold temperatures, and no tools, Shuyin searched the harbor's wreckage. As he found survivors and brought them to whatever stable surface was available, Lenne's phoenix scooped them up and flew them to the mainland. But the violent events had disrupted the fiends lurking in the depths, so a new danger quickly threatened an already nearly impossible task. Without his sword, all Shuyin could hope for was to outwit them or out-swim them. So, it wasn't long before he was forced to abandon his submerged rescue efforts.

Hopping on the phoenix's back, he scanned the city from above, looking for people trapped on rooftops or in burning buildings. He was bringing an elderly man out of some rubble when the warships returned and fired on the phoenix. The aeon was more concerned about getting the victim to safety than defending itself, but in the process of trying to save the man's life, it lost its own. Shuyin watched in frustrated dismay as the aeon melted out of the material realm to return to the plane of magic.

More missiles fired—this time toward the east water gardens. Wasn't that where Lenne said the spirits of her aeons resided?

"No!" Shouting a string of curses at the Bevelle warships, Shuyin pitched a rock at their overhead pass. His return to the elderly man who survived the fire was too late. Spitting more curses and brushing off more tears, he pulled the man's body into the rooftop stairwell. But then climbed down the fire escape and continued his search and rescue mission alone, making his way on foot through the razed city toward the temple.


	19. Chapter 19: War

Chapter 19: War

Lenne, Bahamut, and Zen swam toward the shore using as many resting points above the water as they could grasp onto, no matter how unstable or brief-lived they were. She didn't even notice her aeon was shot down because she was too concerned with trying to keep her brother and herself alive. When they reached solid ground at the mainland's waterfront, they ran for the nearest public transport station, but all trains had been rendered useless.

Another missile whistled into the city and exploded behind them. Lenne grabbed her brother's hand and ran down the crumbling, blazing streets while dodging falling debris. Stumbling a few times, they finally rounded the corner of the road where their mother lived. The building, or what remained of it, was completely engulfed in flames. The floor Meri lived on no longer existed. Lenne dropped to her knees, pulling her brother down with her, and fell into heartbroken sobs with him. Zen stood over them in silent vigil as they grieved, but with floodwaters already rushing through the waterfront district streets, he knew they could not stay.

When another missile hit the city, Zen pushed them to keep running. The ronso lifted the boy onto his back and ran with Lenne toward the inner city. She passed through shattered buildings, and between injured people she knew she could not help, pushing toward the temple with only a passing glance to her own destroyed apartment complex.

The temple was on higher ground and close to the Zanarkand plains. But it had been targeted by the warships. People were already bringing their wounded and dead, begging tearfully for the assistance of a white mage or summoner. But since the temple had been hit, everyone was afraid to go inside. While officials were doing everything they could to get people out of harm's way, Lenne decided her primary task was to sort the severity of the survivors' injuries. But she struggled with the knowledge that it was unlikely that her mother escaped before her building was hit. And she had no idea what had become of her aunt or production crew. She kept hoping—fearing—that she might find familiar faces among the new arrivals, living or dead. If she could not heal her loved ones, she could at least help them rest in peace in they were found. She couldn't bear the thought of them becoming fiends.

"Lenne!" One of the temple summoners jogged toward her from inside the temple. "High Summoner Yevon is calling all available summoners and white mages to defend the city. Said to tell any summoners present to join in casting the shell."

Lenne nodded in agreement, but then turned to their ronso friend. "Zen, we have to get as many people as we can to safe places, but nowhere in Zanarkand is safe anymore. You said there were hidden caverns in the mountains. Is it possible to send our weakest ones there for temporary shelter?"

Zen was clearly reluctant to say without approval from the tribal elder, but he had witnessed the unprovoked attack and damage done to the city. He nodded in agreement.

"Then, I will suggest it to Lord Yevon." She looked at Bahamut. "Do you know how to join a casting yet? We need all the magic we can get."

The boy nodded, too.

"When Shuyin comes looking for us, let him know we're okay," she told the ronso. "Just keep moving people to safety!" she called back as she took her brother's hand and ran with the other summoner to the temple and down into the summoning chamber. Nearly every summoner in Zanarkand that had survived the attack was gathering in a large, multi-ringed circle, extending their hands and magical staffs toward the starry sky overhead. Lenne and Bahamut slipped into the ring wherever they could squeeze in and lifted their hands as well, drawing spirit magic together in a manner that united it into one potent spell. In the center of the circle, Yu Yevon lifted his staff and directed their combined flow up into the smoke-filled air over Zanarkand, summoning a defensive shield. It started above the temple and spread down and around the rest of the city.

Almost as soon as it went up, a missile slammed into the shield and exploded. One of the airships that didn't see it exploded on impact. The night sky looked as if it was on fire, but the shield held. The warships fired on it in one last effort to break through before flying away. Their mission to punish Zanarkand had succeeded. Three-fourths of the city was sinking into the sea, and the fourth that remained above ground was a broken, burning mess.

))((

By the time Shuyin reached the temple, the city shield was being maintained on a rotational basis. Some of the summoners began sending as many dead as possible. Others continued tending the injured. They moved everyone into the stable areas of the temple and used fire spells on emergency torches to light the bombed ruins. It was easy for him to spot the large ronso helping Lenne carry bodies into a blown-out corner for the sending rites. As soon as she spotted him, she ran into his arms and held on for a long emotional pause. Frightened and overwhelmed by the trauma of the day's events, the pair simply hugged each other close until the pain of what they had experienced subsided.

"How's your brother?" he asked.

She dried her tears. "He's helping in the summoning circle."

"And your mom?"

"There's nothing left." She was beginning to sound hoarse from all the crying, shouting, and screaming.

"Meri ..." He felt Lenne's loss almost as deeply as she did.

"Everything is either burning or sinking. Survivors coming in say the whole city is flooded—even most of the mainland. There's so many ..." She broke down and wept again. "So many have died. So many are still dying. There's no way we can send them all. Zanarkand will be overwhelmed by fiends with this many deaths all at once." Lenne clenched her teeth. "How dare they attack us like that! How dare they do this during a big event like the tournament when they knew people would be defenseless! People who don't even live here were at that game! That far from the shore, there was no way to escape! Families with babies and children! Even in the buildings, they were trapped and ... and ..." She pounded her chest with a fist, but short of breath, broke into tears again.

He'd never seen Lenne angry before—annoyed, yes, but not _really_ angry. He felt her pain, but he was too bruised and exhausted to put energy into that anger right now. "The only people I've been finding were already dead, so I decided to wait until daylight and try again."

Lenne nodded in understanding of the dark conditions. "You made a difference to those you found, at least. Thank you for trying." Still crying, she pulled away and tried to wipe away the tears. "We can find a place to rest after the meeting Lord Yevon called for all summoners and their guardians. He's urging people to seek shelter in the open plains for the night, away from the unstable buildings."

"It's too bad my tent is at the bottom of the ocean with my boat," he muttered.

She sadly nodded, though the loss of the tent was the least of their worries.

Shuyin held her close and kissed the top of her head as she buried her face into his wet uniform and continued to cry. "We'll survive this, okay? We still have each other." He wanted to tell her everything would be all right. He wanted to, but he couldn't. Hating Bevelle, he looked up to find peace among the stars, but on this night, destruction had rained down from the sky. She was his only peace now.

))((

High Summoner Yu Yevon entered the room where most of his surviving summoners and their chosen guardians gathered for the emergency meeting, and as he stepped onto the podium, whispers silenced to a hush. He was sad but calm. However, his strange lavender eyes now bore the chilling look of someone with his back against the wall and only one option out. "First, let me say I am thankful that so many of you have not only survived this barbaric attack but also come to my aid in this time of need. The shield that drove the warships away would not have been possible without each and every one of you. This attack wasn't intended to be a warning. It was meant to obliterate. And since they failed to wipe us out completely, they will likely come back. That is why I have called all of you together. We must be vigilant in not allowing them to kick us while we're down."

Lenne sat quietly on the floor with her hands folded together in a prayerful gesture at the tip of her nose, but she was not praying. She was trying to cope. Seated beside her, Shuyin placed an arm across her shoulders and drew her near, still trying to comfort her.

"I knew this would happen if we declared our independence from the Founders!" one of Yu Yevon's advisers angrily proclaimed. "I warned you! This never would have happened if you had listened to us and made some kind of consensus with Bevelle, rather than touting it in their faces that we would do as we pleased!"

"Zanarkand will _not_ be bullied into complying with the Founders when their ultimate goal is to destroy Spira!" The high summoner met his advisor's discontent with a piercing gaze. "The Founders want to destroy the magic that sustains life on this world because, in their eyes, Spira is not a real world. To Earth, we are nothing but a colony ship that has become an unpredictable threat. They fear us because souls on Spira continue to live in a different state of consciousness even after our bodies die. They don't understand aeons or fiends, so they accuse us of summoning demons. They say we are cursed! And they fear that our magic will curse them, eventually conquering all. But Spira is not like Earth! We should not have to restrict _our_ lives according to _their_ archaic beliefs and fears! They have no right to govern us when they do not understand us! And we certainly don't deserve to die because of who we have become."

"Declaring independence only raised their hackles more!" the adviser argued. "Over half of the city was destroyed! Hundreds of thousands of people died for that declaration! The people of this city trusted you to make good decisions that would protect them!"

"I have not failed my city!" Yevon fired back. "We were all caught by surprise, but we will not take this lying down! Bevelle will be punished for this atrocity, believe me. Zanarkand will be saved, whatever the cost." Yevon stepped aside from the podium, but still leaned on it as he addressed the gathering, rather than his political opponents. "The warships' primary targets were quite clear. They took out all of our airships to restrict us to ground-based operations. They hit the east water gardens, where I was building my aeons toward the city's defenses. They took out the communications networks to keep us from getting organized enough to send new orders. And they took out the stadium, the bridges, and every city block on the floating isles and waterfront, which means they didn't care _who_ they killed as long as they took out as many of us as possible. If the shield had not held them off, the temple and everything around it would have been finished, as well. That doesn't leave us much … but we will fight with all that we have left. We still have our ground defense machina, and we have you—Zanarkand's finest summoners and guardians. We will march on Bevelle and demand justice for the sins they have committed here today."

Lenne looked at Shuyin with alarm. Shuyin's heart skipped a beat. _War ..._ He expected as much, but actually hearing it made it harder to swallow. He knew he shouldn't say anything, but he couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Excuse me, Lord High Summoner, ... Sir." He held up a hand to draw his attention but wasn't sure how to address the man. "If the water gardens were destroyed, does that mean all the aeons were destroyed, too?"

"All of the Fayth in the water gardens were destroyed," Yevon confirmed, as anxious whispers went around the room. "I have no idea how Bevelle knew that the souls of our aeons resided there, though. I strongly suspect there is a traitor among us, and that matter will be investigated and dealt with as soon as the more immediate concerns are no longer a problem."

"But, if summoners can't call aeons to fight, you're sending them into battle unarmed."

"Summoners are not unarmed as long as they have their guardians."

Shuyin frowned. "With all due respect, Sir, guardians aren't enough to take on Bevelle's army. This isn't a fiend cornered in an alley of the southern district. Without aeons, you're sending us out there to die."

"Shu ..." Anxious about his bold confrontation with the high summoner, Lenne reached for his hand, a plea for him to not push his luck.

"Machina and warriors will do most of the fighting. Mages with offensive, elemental magic will be among their ranks, as well. But they will be shielded by the defensive magic of our summoners, who will be shielded by their guardians." Yevon addressed the gathering once more, rather than the one who interrupted him. "You will march on Bevelle and secure the temple. Then my daughter, Lady Yunalesca, will present my demands for retribution to Bevelle's governing council. My demands are simple. The Founders must leave Spira for good. All machina weaponry, including our own, must be banned so that no city is ever attacked like this again. And the magic of the Farplane must be left to all levels of existence and use without restrictions. If they do not meet our demands, they will get a taste of Zanarkand's power first-hand."

Shuyin didn't like the sound of that. "Sometimes in blitzball, we set up a play to draw the other team's defense forward, so that we can slip a shooter behind their backs, closer to their goal. What if they're doing that to us? If you take our machina weapons _and_ our summoners to Bevelle, there's nobody left to defend Zanarkand."

"This is not a game!" Yevon hit the podium with a fist, and his gaze darkened on the blitzball player. "And you are _not_ in a position to question me, guardian!"

Shuyin rose in quick confrontation. "I'm in a position to protect my summoner! And taking the summoners into battle without aeons is_ not_ protecting them! Leaving Zanarkand without its summoners' defenses is _not_ protecting it! While you're trying to prove your political power, you'll be sending more people to their deaths!" His protest sparked a widespread murmur of agreement among the other guardians and summoners gathered.

"Sit down and hold your insolent tongue before I have you thrown into the garrison!"

"Shuyin, please!" Lenne tugged his hand to sit back down, but he stubbornly folded his arms and remained standing.

Yevon descended from the podium to stand directly before the obstinate protestor. His intense, purple eyes and stern demeanor tightened in silent anger before he spoke loud enough for all to hear. "I said Zanarkand's aeons were destroyed. I never said there wouldn't be aeons to help them fight." He turned to his daughter. "Yunalesca, would you please demonstrate to this _guardian_ that we have nothing to fear on the front lines?"

Lady Yunalesca, a high ranking summoner in her own right, left her golden-armor-clad husband and guardian, Zaon, to stride toward Shuyin with a cold, haughty glare. "Each of the temples has been fitted with a new aeon—each temple, except Bevelle. It has been defenseless because the one chosen to be its guardian has been reluctant to leave Zanarkand." Yunalesca cut a glance toward Lenne before returning her attention to Shuyin. "Now that all our eggs are no longer in one basket, so to speak, if one aeon falls, another from a safer location may be called upon."

Despite Yunalesca's alluring, barely-there attire and long, silver-white hair, Shuyin's eyes never left her face. They were obviously still intent upon having Lenne take that position, but if she accepted it now, she would be at even more risk than before. He felt no guilt whatsoever about being the obstacle to Lenne's acceptance if it meant keeping her alive.

"Our summoners here in Zanarkand have not had the chance to travel to the other temples and pray to the new Fayth yet, so, unfortunately, they will not be able to call upon them. _However_, I can." Yunalesca backed up and summoned her magical staff. Giving it a twirl, she drew glyphs of fire that would open a gateway to the plane of magic at her feet. "Ifrit, guardian of the flames of Kilika! Come to me!"

The glyphs on the floor burst apart, and a giant, canine-faced, multi-horned beast with a flaming mouth materialized at her side, making all the other summoners in the room quickly clear the floor space for it. The aeon shook out its flame-orange mane and pounded its large clawed hands on the ground, ready to pounce at the given command, but Yunalesca patted his muscle-defined neck and shoulders as if it were a docile lamb. Then, she smiled proudly to the rest of the summoners and tipped her head toward Shuyin, hoping that was enough to make him eat his words.

Most of the summoners in the room were low-ranking and had no knowledge of how to summon _any_ aeons yet. So, they were awed beyond words at its presence. Lenne knew what kind of trust and magical strength were required to call upon one of the Fayth, so she bowed reverently to the new aeon.

Yevon lifted his chin with confidence toward Shuyin, then looked over his shoulder at the argumentative adviser who also spoke out against him. "Now then, if the two of you think you can be quiet long enough to listen, I'll tell you the plan." The high summoner returned to his podium and addressed his congregation. "At daybreak, my daughter and her husband will lead most of our survivors away from the city to some hidden caverns in the mountains. They will inform Elder Kinan what has happened here, although, with his vantage point on Gagazet, I'm sure he already saw it. The rest of you will have one day to prepare for your mission … which is to destroy Bevelle's machina and secure the temple there. Yunalesca will send aeons to help you fight, and I will protect Zanarkand _myself_." He faced the roomful of summoners with a grave expression. "My decision is final. Use tomorrow to take care of any business at home."

Shuyin sat back down in a huff. "You mean _if_ you're one of the lucky ones to still have a home," he grumbled.

Lenne gave him a reprimanding scowl and hooked his arm to prevent him from confronting the high summoner like that again. "What were you thinking! Do you want to end up in jail?"

"He can't jail me when the entire city's in ruins. We probably don't even have a jail anymore."

"Excuse me, my lord," another adviser spoke up. "But ... what should we do about the rumors regarding Bevelle's development of an ultimate weapon? If the rumors are true about an intelligent weapon with the power to obliterate an entire army, how could our ordinary machina compare to that?"

"Our aeons are far more intelligent and powerful than anything Bevelle could screw together out of nuts and bolts. That weapon is only a rumor. No one has actually seen such a thing to prove it exists. Either way, it is of no concern. If Bevelle has dared to produce the ultimate machina, then I will send them the ultimate aeon."

))((

Zanarkand was eerily silent that night, except for the sound of people mourning their lost loved ones. The City That Never Sleeps was cold, dark, and mostly gone. The air smelled of smoke, and the ocean waves lapped against the debris, bumping anything loose until it found a new permanent place to wedge and settle. Survivors kept coming to the temple for aid. Summoners worked through the night, sending as many dead souls as they could. But pyreflies were already rising around the city and its surrounding bay, giving it an otherworldly appearance.

Lenne met her brother in the summoning chamber after the meeting, and the four friends left the city limits for the broken road toward the plains for the night. It was only a few hours before dawn by the time they settled. Though they were all exhausted, the tension was too high to sleep. Instead, they pitched a campfire to dry out wet clothing and stay warm as they kept a nervous eye on the sky beyond the mountains toward Bevelle. None of them had anything to say for a long time until the ronso spoke.

"Zen fight with Shuyin as Lenne's guardian tomorrow."

His offer to join her entourage touched her, but she sadly shook her head and declined. "Thank you, Zen. But I can't let you do that. You need to help your tribe build the teleportation gates. Zanarkand is in shambles now, but if the mountain pass can stay open, we can rebuild someday."

"If Zen cannot go as guardian, then go as friend. If cannot go as friend, then go as ronso. But Zen _will _go," he angrily insisted.

"I want to go, too." Bahamut's quiet little voice was sad but determined.

This time Lenne vehemently shook her head. "Absolutely not! You're not even a full-fledged summoner yet. And you don't have a guardian."

"Shuyin and Zen can be my guardians."

"_NO!_" Lenne clutched his thin arms in her hands. "You are a little boy! For god's sake, act like one for once! The battlefield is no place for you."

"I'm good with magic, too," he argued. "Everyone should be allowed to help if they can."

"Then, help here. We need good summoners here as well, where people are wounded and homeless. Please,_ please_ stay here. Promise me you'll stay here."

Bahamut shook his head in refusal. "I have the heart of a dragon! I'm not afraid!"

Shuyin abruptly snatched the boy's shirt, startling both the boy and his sister. "I don't care if you have a dragon's ass! Promise your sister, you'll stay here! The front lines of battle are no place for a kid, and she can't afford to be worrying about you!"

Bahamut trembled slightly under the blitz player's anger, but it wasn't because he was afraid of Shuyin. It was because Shuyin's anger revealed his fear. "I promise," he tearfully agreed.

Shuyin released the boy but remained irritated at his and Zen's heroic offers. Standing, he left the campfire to seek solitude for a moment on a rock hill facing what was left of the city. Lenne hugged her brother close to comfort him, but her attention followed her upset guardian. After a moment, she dried her little brother's tears, then stood and climbed the top of the rise where Shuyin's blank gaze stared out over the burning ruins of their homeland.

"We don't have to go to Bevelle," he suggested, knowing she was near.

She sat down at his side, wrapping her arms around her knees. "You know that we do."

He laced his fingers through hers. "We could go someplace far away. I hear Kilika is always sunny. We could have a little beach-front place with palm fruit trees … pet monkeys." He gave her a small smile.

His smile made her sad. He was such a dreamer thinking he could escape all of this and start over someplace else, but she had to admit she liked the sound of his dream. "I can't _not_ go, Shu," she told him before he could continue and make her long for something she knew she couldn't have. "People are counting on me—on us. If we run away, the other summoners and guardians will be short on defense. And if they lose, Bevelle might hurt another city. But if we fight, maybe we can destroy their weapons, so fewer people are hurt in the long run." She tried to offer him a hopeful smile.

"There's no way to talk you out of this ... is there."

She shook her head and entwined her arms under his, leaning closer.

As they sat in silence for a long moment, he sighed and looked back toward the sea. "Do you intend to take the position at the temple as soon as we get there?"

"I think I should." She averted her eyes with regret and shame. "If I had accepted the position before Bevelle had the chance to attack, I might have been able to warn Zanarkand about the warships. If I accept the position now, we could at least have another aeon at our disposal. And I think we're going to need all the aeons we can get."

"How do they make those things anyway?"

"Well, I don't know exactly, but to summon an aeon, you have to pray to its Fayth."

"Faith?"

"The Fayth are spirits who willingly gave their lives to defend Zanarkand. Summoners must pray to each Fayth and be judged worthy before we can ask for their help. It's the only chance the Fayth has to deny its service because once the bond is made, it cannot be broken. If the Fayth chooses to bond with a summoner, its soul comes through the summoning magic back into reality as an aeon. That's why they look so much like fiends. They're both made of spirit magic that has manifested as a solid illusion—new bodies for old souls. So far, only the high summoner and his daughter know how to create an aeon, but I'm sure they will train others someday. Right now, they're just concerned with teaching others how to summon them."

"A lifetime of bondage to fight at someone else's call?"

"It's quite a sacrifice … which is why we revere the Fayth so. It's probably also why there aren't many of them."

Shuyin cast her a wary side glance. "How exactly did they _willingly_ give their lives?"

Lenne gave a light shrug. "I'm not really sure. I suppose they died in the line of duty while fighting fiends or something."

Shuyin's brows drew together in uncertainty. "Or maybe they were sacrificed?"

Lenne frowned and sat up, pulling away from him. "Oh, come on!"

"They can't volunteer _after_ they're dead."

"Human sacrifice?"

"If nobody knows how they died –"

"If that was the case, don't you think one of the spirits would have said something about it?"

"Maybe they can't … for some reason. None of the aeons you summoned could talk."

"Shuyin, _stop_." She waved her hands in irritation. "I know you don't want me taking that position in Bevelle. And, I know you don't like Lord Yevon—for _whatever _reason. But accusations of human sacrifice are totally uncalled for. How can you say something like that about him when his teachings have always been about protecting and helping people? He's prepared to defend what's left of Zanarkand _all by himself_ while the survivors escape."

"Okay, I'm sorry," he quietly apologized. Drawing Lenne into his arms again, he kissed her temple and sighed. "It's just … I'll never forgive myself if I let anything bad happen to you, and I still don't understand how a summoner could be a guardian using only defensive magic. Don't be mad at me."

"What's there to understand? Guarding someone means defending them, right? This shield over the city is guarding us by just _being_ there. It doesn't have to fight." Lenne wrapped her arms around his waist once more and snuggled into him as close as possible, using him as a buffer against the chilly breeze coming off of the desolate ocean. "Lord Yevon needs our support right now, not arguments. Lady Yunalesca's aeon looked proud to be at her side. The Bevelle aeon is probably just as eager to help, but no one's there to pull it through." She pouted slightly and placed a hand over his heart, able to feel it beating. "I'll be fine as long as you're there with me."

"I will always be there for you," he promised, hooking her pinky finger with his own.

))((

At daybreak, Bahamut kept his promise and joined Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon when they gathered the refugees. Lenne kissed her little brother and waved a tearful goodbye as she watched him follow the exodus from the ruins of Zanarkand up the mountain pass to the safety of the ronso caverns.

Yunalesca noted the boy's reluctance to leave his sister's group that would be fighting, and she was well aware of his reputation as a precocious apprentice summoner. The fact that he was leaving instead of staying made her wonder. "You want to fight with them, don't you?" she asked, taking him under her wing as they walked across the plains. "You can, if you wish, you know. They could probably use your help. You may be an apprentice, but my father has said great things about your potential."

"I promised I would stay behind."

"But your heart wishes to defend them."

"Yes." The boy marched alongside her without expression … without complaint … without further explanation. He was still shedding tears over his lost family, and he was tired from lack of sleep. But his small face was set in determination to keep his promise since he could do nothing else.

Yunalesca nodded thoughtfully to herself as an idea came to her that perhaps her father had overlooked.

))((

Lenne spent the rest of the day alternating between healing the injured, helping to perform sendings with other summoners, and joining the effort to keep the city shielded.

Shuyin and Zen swam to his houseboat to inspect the damage and found it pinned under the massive concrete piers at the bottom of the ocean floor. There was a big hole punctured in the hull, so he swam through it to the lower bedroom and drew his father's sword from the closet. He would need it tomorrow, but there was no point in trying to salvage anything else yet.

))((

Dawn over Zanarkand the following morning was bleak. Lenne had not been able to sleep a wink on the cold, hard ground during the night, and she found herself longing for the comfort—yes, _comfort_—of those two, thin sleeping bags and blankets they had used up on Mt. Gagazet. Hearing the warriors' preparations to take their armored machina over the mountain pass, she gave up on sleep and sat up, drawing her knees to her chin. She tried to think of something to distract herself from her worries, and looked to her sleeping guardians. Zen could not be shaken from wanting to join them, so she accepted his offer and took comfort knowing she now had two very capable guardians at her side. Lightly stroking the back of Shuyin's hair, she considered how much he had changed since they first met. It made her sad but proud.

Shuyin felt a tear fall on his cheek and woke with a stretch. He didn't need to ask why she was crying again. Any number of reasons could be cited. "What are you trying to do, drown me?" he softly quipped.

She gave a light laugh and dried her eyes. "Sorry."

With a mild groan, he pushed himself up to a seated position and put a hand to his stomach.

"You're not feeling sick, are you?" she asked with concern.

"No. Just hungry."

She lifted her eyes to the horizon of broken buildings and smoke plumes. "I'm afraid your bottomless pit will have to do without breakfast. I don't think any stores are open for take-out." It would have sounded funny, instead of sad, if he had said it.

"Maybe our big plushie over here can hunt something on the mountain trail on our way to Bevelle." He reached for the tuft of fur on the end of Zen's tail, intending to give it a playful yank, but his wrist was abruptly caught in the ronso's vice-like grip.

"No touch tail." The ronso opened one pale green eye.

"I ... was not ... going to," Shuyin lied ... badly.

Lenne smiled as the ronso released him and stood. However, when the calls went out for all summoners to gather their guardians and take their places in the march formation, her smile faded.

"Are you sure you don't want to just ... walk away from this?" He tried one more time to convince her she didn't have to do it.

"I'm sure," she answered without hesitation. "I'm just ... scared," she admitted. "I'm used to fighting a few fiends here and there. But I've never had to fight other people before."

"You're not the only one," he assured her. "But, if we're going out there, we need to stay focused on winning. Okay? Don't think about anything else. If you let your concentration slip, then you make careless mistakes," he coached her as if she was now a member of his blitzball team.

"Guardians not leave Lenne's side," the ronso added.

Lenne gave each of them a hug and a kiss for their attempts to encourage her.

"And don't make a habit of kissing him, okay?" Shuyin continued. "I might get jealous. And you might get fur in your mouth … which is kinda nasty just thinking about it."

She chuckled lightly and took his hand to pull him along. Then, she summoned her magical staff and clutched it tightly in her free hand as she walked between her two guardians toward the gathering of Zanarkand's armed forces.

))((

Organization had to be quick and thorough if Zanarkand were to pull off this maneuver, so as soon as summoners arrived at the formation, they were assigned a small unit of warriors to defend. Lenne made a point of meeting each warrior in her troop, learning their faces and shaking their hands. Their lives were dependent upon her, so she wanted to make sure she knew each of them well. After that, mobilization was swift despite the large machina leading the way.

Shuyin took one last look over his shoulder at the city of his birth—his home. A small, robed figure stood alone on the steps of the ruined temple, watching them leave. He still had strong misgivings about Yevon's way of handling the situation, but the time for debate was over. All he could do now was slip an arm around Lenne's shoulders and move forward with her.

Lenne did fine going up the long hike to the mountain summit, but as soon as they came to the narrow crossroads again, Shuyin hoisted her onto his back and told her to close her eyes. It was a good thing they had done this before, so he knew what to expect and do this time. The only time Shuyin became nervous about the crossing was when one of the tall, robotic machina nearly slipped. The warriors used other machina to brace it and pull it back on track. But there was fear among everyone for a moment that the fragile overpasses would not be able to support their weight if one of the machina fell with enough force to cause a stress fracture in the rock beneath them. Shuyin decided against informing Lenne of what was happening when she asked why they had stopped. Instead, he muttered something about scouting for fiends.

When Zanarkand's army reached the ronso village, Elder Kinan was already present to meet them. Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon stood beside him. Yunalesca, still dressed in her favored scant attire, appeared to be miserable standing in all that snow, but her flesh sparkled slightly with the glow of magic—a spell designed to warm her, Shuyin supposed. He shivered in his own blitzball vest and shorts, wishing he had a spell like that at a time like this. Lord Zaon appeared to have the right idea wearing full body armor. Shuyin nudged Lenne and whispered in her ear. "When this is over, I want a pay raise so I can get one of those tin can suits and look like a real guardian."

Lenne smiled at his suggestion, but she was cold and shivering, too. "I hope my brother and the other refugees are okay. But I also hope this little stop-over won't take long," she whispered back.

"Our survivors are safely hidden!" Yunalesca announced to the army. "Do not fear for them! Instead, remove the threat that prevents them from returning home! Summoners and warriors, we fight for those who perished without mercy in this unprovoked attack! We defend those who cannot defend themselves!" She raised her summoning staff high above her head and twirled it to open a portal to the plane of magic. "Valefor! On wings of light! Come to our aid!"

The sky opened from another realm, and a very large, brightly colored, bird-like aeon swooped over their heads to hover above them. The Zanarkand summoners were awed by their new fighting companion and bowed reverently to her.

"Ronso see destruction from afar!" Elder Kinan stepped forward. "Ronso not let Bevelle's army cross mountains second time," he growled. "Ronso protect Zanarkand until Zanarkand tribe returns!"

Seeing a throng of ronso warriors come from the various ledges and caverns to stand behind their elder was just the boost of the morale the summoners and warriors needed. They cheered their gratitude both to their ronso allies and their new aeon.

As the army moved again, ready to go through the mountain pass and down the other side, Zen pulled Lenne and Shuyin out of march formation to meet with his uncle one more time. "Zen go with Summoner Lenne. Fight for ronso friends." He produced a memory sphere and pressed it into his uncle's large hands. "Last of temple magic lessons. Put teleport gates in mountain for Zanarkand tribe to return."

The elder ronso nodded in solemn agreement and braced his nephew's shoulder, then watched as Zen and his human friends filtered back into the army's ranks.

Shuyin looked up at the aeon flying ahead of them, but as he stared at the city in the plains below the precipice, all he could think of was what they were leaving behind.


	20. Chapter 20: Man Vs Machina

Chapter 20: Man Vs. Machina

By the time the Zanarkand army made it down the steep slopes on the other side of the mountains into the flat grassland basin, night was creeping in around them. Troop commanders decided it was best to rest before attempting to cross the wide-open plains to face off against Bevelle. Their troops had not eaten or slept well since the attack, but to delay too long before a counterattack would allow Bevelle to do it again. Campfires were summoned on piles of stone, and select members from each troop were sent to hunt wildlife that prowled the region. Zen volunteered for that effort, while Shuyin and Lenne rested.

Meanwhile, the captains opened crates of emergency rations that had been collected from storage before they left Zanarkand and began passing them out among their units. "Good thing Yevon thought to stash emergency food supplies with the ground forces machina." Chyuno, the captain of Lenne's warrior unit, commented as he offered her a packet.

Lenne opened the plastic bag and sniffed it.

"I've had this before. My old man used to pack it for camping trips. Never had to eat it cold, though." Shuyin squished his bag to mix the ingredients better and poured some into his mouth.

Lenne passed her bag to him. "Then, you can have mine."

He stopped chewing and passed it right back to her. "You have to eat something. I don't want you passing out on me just because you're a picky eater."

"I'm not a picky eater."

He chuckled as if that was the most absurd statement she ever made. Eating more from his own rations, he stretched out his legs, crossing one ankle over the other.

"He's right," Chyuno agreed. "We all need to eat to keep up our strength. Please at least try it, Lady Lenne. Our troops don't stand a chance if you're not strong enough to fortify them tomorrow."

As the troop leader left a third pack for their ronso friend and went to the next unit, Lenne set her food packet aside and stretched out, resting her head on Shuyin's lap. She watched quietly as he ate and noticed he was watching Yunalesca's bird-like aeon sitting by itself a short distance away.

Ever since meeting Lenne's aeons, Shuyin had become fascinated by the things. "Ne, Lenne. Do you think that aeon is stronger than the ones you had?" He finished his mouthful and sipped some bottled water that also came from the emergency rations.

Lenne saddened even more at the mention of her lost aeons. "I'm trying not to think."

"Thinking about how much fun we had training might help you smile. Remember that first time when Ryuo pushed me overboard? Or what about that time—"

"I don't feel like smiling anymore."

He set down his bottle to draw her hair away from her neck and shoulders. "I know it doesn't feel like there's anything worth smiling about right now, but going into this feeling discouraged won't help."

"I know." She interlocked her fingers over and under his knee. "That's why I need you to keep smiling, even if I don't. It's one of the reasons I wanted you to be my guardian, remember?"

"Well, maybe I don't feel like smiling either." Shuyin moved his ankles back and forth lightly, jostling her head. "You're still not eating."

"I'm not hungry."

"Liar. Your stomach growled louder than mine coming down that mountain pass." He rocked his ankles to jostle her head again and picked up the bag of pre-cooked food, touching it to her lips and making "nom-nom" sounds, just to annoy her.

The corner of Lenne's mouth reluctantly curled at his foolishness until a small laugh escaped. Finally, she sat up and grabbed the bag from him. "You are such a pest. I'll need water if you expect me to choke this down."

Smirking at his victory, he passed her a water bottle. When he finished his own meal, he dropped his trash into the collective pile. Then, he walked to the aeon and stretched a cautious hand to greet it. "Don't bite me. Just trying to say hello."

Valefor sniffed his hand, then stood her full height to tower above him before lowering her neck to his eye level.

Shuyin smiled at the gentle nature of the creature and stroked its feathers. "Too bad you weren't around earlier to join my training. I'll bet you've got some interesting moves."

Lenne shook her head, amused. He was like a boy trying to befriend a stray dog. Standing, she deposited her trash and joined them. "She likes you."

"She?" Shuyin backed up and glanced askance at the creature. "Nh … how can you tell?"

Valefor shook her neck and stomped, talons digging into the ground at the insult.

He quickly shielded himself and backed away from a possible attack. "Nevermind. That was enough to erase any doubts."

Lenne chuckled. "Remember, she can understand you, even if you can't understand her. She's not an animal. She was human once."

Shuyin paused midway between reaching to stroke her feathers again, then withdrew his hand. "So, she's … resurrected? Kinda?"

"I'd say it's more of a reincarnation since her body manifested differently."

"But she's really real."

"Well, as real as any spiritual manifestation can be. The magic that creates an aeon's body truly does simulate flesh and bone while present in the material plane. She feels hunger, pain, and everything else we do. But, as you know, from training with them, their illusion dispels, and their spirits are banished back into the Farplane if they die in reality."

"But you can summon them again. So, if they're basically immortal, why didn't the aeons in the water garden survive?"

"Well, technically, all spirits on Spira are immortal, but most stay in the Farplane once they are sent. Aeons return when summoners invoke the magical seals placed on the tombs of their Fayth. The only way to truly destroy an aeon is to destroy its Fayth. And that's exactly what Bevelle did when they hit the water gardens."

"There were tombs in the water gardens?" He was mildly appalled by that thought.

"There have always been tombs in the water beneath Zanarkand. That's why we had so many problems with fiends before Yevon taught us the Rites of the Sending. That's why … " Lenne saddened, sighed, and slipped an arm around his waist. "Nevermind. We should try to sleep. Chyuno says we need to move before day breaks tomorrow morning." She drew him back to their campfire as Valefor whistled a goodnight.

Shuyin grew quiet.

Lenne could guess what he was thinking. His mother was buried at sea. Koji was lost there, too. So was his father. How many more souls had met their end in those depths? How many more spirits haunted the Zanarkand shores now that Bevelle had destroyed the city?

Zen returned from an unsuccessful hunt—too many people scaring off the prey. He had already eaten his rations packet and extinguished their fire. Now he was reclining in the grass. Both Lenne and Shuyin copied his position, but then Lenne rolled toward Shuyin, placing an ear on his chest to listen to his heart. A cool breeze swept over the plains, and crickets in the field chirped to one another, but sleep remained elusive.

))((

The noise started as a low whistle, then broadened into a steady engine rush. Shuyin woke from a troubled dream and supported himself on one elbow as he scanned the pitch dark wilderness for the source of the odd sound. It took him a moment to recognize what it was, but seconds later, he was on his feet frantically tugging at Lenne and Zen. "Get up! Get up!"

Everyone else in the camp seemed to wake about the same time, but realized too late they were being ambushed. Red and white lights rose from behind the cliffs on the other side of the grasslands, clods of dirt flew into their faces, and the ground shook with explosions as the Bevelle warships rained missiles down on them.

Lenne's troops tried to cover their heads and duck for cover behind their heavy machina, but the summoner started to panic.

"Stay calm and cast your magic!" Shuyin coached above the thundering bombs, though he fought the urge to flee as well. "We all need shields!"

Recollecting her composure, Lenne summoned her rod and began casting shield spells over each of the warriors in her unit as they hurried to defensive positions. Shuyin drew his sword, and Zen took up his lance, both flanking Lenne so nothing would interfere with her casting.

Other than sparks of magic, Shuyin could barely see what else was happening, but he heard the clattering engines of large machina starting up. Within minutes, Zanarkand's army was returning fire. The explosions were almost deafening and brought back fresh memories of the blitzball stadium under attack.

Valefor rose into the air and cast powerful sonic waves at the warships, rattling them until they began dropping parts. Then, she flew straight at them, driving one warship into the cliffs, and another onto the ground. The aeon alternated between physical and magical attacks, but since her attacks were the strongest ones out there, she soon became the primary target.

Shuyin was thrown when a magical lightning bolt jolted the ground with a blinding flash. "Damn it! I can't see anything but spots!" He reached toward Lenne to see if she was okay. She and the warrior she had been casting a shield on were bowled over by the airstrike, as was Zen, but no one seemed to be in distress. As his vision cleared, Shuyin saw that no one was injured, but their ally in the sky was beginning to shimmer and fade. "Lenne! We can't afford to lose the aeon!"

Back on her feet, the summoner began casting cure spells on the bird-like creature. Other summoners must have noticed Valefor was in danger, too, because soon more cure spells could be seen fortifying her flight. The aeon was their most powerful weapon and their only airborne defense. They had to keep her alive.

Valefor grabbed two more warships, one after another, and flung them to the ground where they exploded on impact. She almost managed to bring down another, but her body could take no more punishment from their missiles. And summoners were running low on magic to sustain her. Eventually, the aeon's pyreflies dispersed, but the last warship fled back toward Bevelle rather than hanging around to continue to fight.

An eerie silence followed as the pitch-black sky lightened into smoke-filled dawn. Shuyin stared in speechless dismay at what the sun's first rays revealed. The ground was pitted with giant pockmarks and deep trenches. Bodies that perished in the airstrike lay scattered all around. Warships lay in burning heaps like crumpled pieces of blackened foil. The battlefield wasn't what disturbed him the most, though. "That couldn't possibly have been the bulk of Bevelle's forces," he said to Zen. "And one airship escaped. They know we're here now."

"They knew before ambush," the ronso pointed out.

"Lord Yevon suspected spies among our ranks." Lenne looked distraught and exhausted from all the defensive spells she had been casting. "Someone told Bevelle we were on the way for a counterattack."

"Or, maybe they just have scouts out here somewhere." Shuyin scanned the burning grasslands and cliffs. There didn't seem to be many places to hide in the open plains, though.

"We haven't even broken camp, yet we've lost our aeon, and most of my magic is already consumed," the summoner lamented.

The ronso offered her a vial from his pouch.

Shuyin frowned at the questionable green liquid and its thick vapors. "What is that stuff?"

"Ethers. It restores magical energy." Lenne eagerly drank it down and returned the vial to Zen. "Thank you. I should check on everyone and make sure we have no injuries or losses, but Chyuno should have more ethers in the alchemy supplies. Could you please bring back as many vials as they'll allow you to take? Remind him to give some to our mages as well."

Zen jogged away to find their captain. Lenne scanned the battlefield and hurried to the first warrior she spotted on the ground. Shuyin sheathed his sword and followed, but looked back at the cliffs toward Bevelle. He knew better than to think this was over.

))((

When Zen returned to Lenne and Shuyin, they were already under orders to move out. Zen carried a pouch full of ethers and passed one large handful each to Lenne and Shuyin. Shuyin stuffed his helping into the pockets of his blitz uniform shorts and zipped them shut. Lenne had no pockets, so fit her vials into easy-to-reach places around her clothing and gave Shuyin the remainder when she ran out of places to tuck them. When they were both ready, they jogged back into their assigned formation. A few summoners lingered behind to gather the dead and perform a sending ritual. But when most of the army was lined up behind their largest machina, the push toward Bevelle began again.

Lenne checked over her shoulder and saw something that looked like an enormous fireball heading toward them from the mountain pass. Its incredible size and speed worried her at first, but then she recognized what it was. "Ifrit! Lady Yunalesca must be watching from the mountain! She summoned Ifrit!" she cried aloud to encourage the others.

Those who heard her turned around to see the Kilika aeon bounding over the pitted ground between the crashed warships. It was the morale boost they needed in the wake of the scant victory over the pre-dawn ambush.

))((

The Zanarkand army was barely half-way across the plains when the warriors in the front line spotted Bevelle's regiments heading their way from the main road between the cliffs. On cue, the Zanarkand units fanned out across the plains in a formation that resembled a vast, broken horseshoe with tiers.

Shuyin watched in wide-eyed discontent as machina from Bevelle poured into their midst. Row after row of machina came from the cliffs, but not a single human was among them. "There's too many." He shook his head in disbelief. "There's too many, and they're all machina. How are we supposed to break through that?"

A gasp caught in Lenne's throat as the hoard swept in various directions toward the Zanarkand blockade, picking up speed. "We can't fight that many machina!"

"Cowards!" Zen snarled and hefted his lance. "Bevelle hides behind machina!"

Shuyin drew his father's sword and shielded his face with his arm as the first missiles began hitting the ground, sending chunks of debris flying.

Zanarkand's warriors in the large robot-machina launched a counterattack. Popfly machina and other heavy artillery followed on their heels. The grasslands erupted into full-scale war.

This time, Lenne didn't need to be cajoled out of shock. After casting a shield spell on herself and her guardians first, she ran to her troops and cast their shields. Zen and Shuyin stayed close to her but kept an eye on the ever-encroaching swarm of unmanned machina headed their way.

Bevelle brought out its crawlers and lined them up to spray the oncoming Zanarkand warriors with bullets as they rushed forward. The terrain became an obstacle course of fire, machina, and deeply gouged pits. The fresh air of the grasslands soon smelled of ash, fuel, gunpowder, and ozone as magic and ammunition ripped across the plains between the two armies.

When Lenne finished her first round of protective magic, she immediately began her second—spells that would nullify all magical attacks on her troops. She replenished her magic as necessary, using the ethers vials tucked into her clothing as she ran between them. But each second of preparation allowed Bevelle's on-coming tide to come a little closer, maintaining the initiative.

Shuyin cast a haste spell on her, himself, and the ronso, so they could move more quickly. Then, he faced the cluster of machina closest to them and cast the spell in reverse, slowing their advance to buy more time.

Backing Shuyin's tactics, Zen leaped into the air and came down, thrusting his lance into the ground with a spell that unleashed a small quake between them and the marching machina, before running after his summoner.

Ifrit cast several flaming meteors into Bevelle's biggest weapons, taking them out of commission. All of the larger machina that remained targeted the aeon without mercy. The canine aeon responded by casting a fire spell that lifted an entire section of Bevelle's army off of the ground. Then he ripped a massive chunk of land from the field and threw it at them. If the destroyed fighters had been human, rather than machina, it would have been a sickening amount of lifeless bodies dropping to the ground in the wake of the fiery attack.

Lenne cast a regen spell on herself, drank another vial of ethers, and cast regen spells on her guardians. But as she turned to heal the aeon, Ifrit was struck by an oncoming warship and banished from the material realm. The summoner gasped in horror and whirled toward Gagazet. "Please, Lady Yunalesca! Please send us another aeon! Hurry!"

"The warships are back!" Shuyin grabbed Lenne's arm and started to move her to the back of their unit when a new sound reached his ears. Hundreds of little buzzing and snapping robots broke through Zanarkand's front lines and rushed into melee. One jab from the little mecha-monsters' bayonet attachments and human warriors were run through, chest to back. Others had gun attachments or pitched grenades. "What the—" Shuyin was forced to dodge a strike. Hitting the ground, he kicked the little robot's feet out from under it before thrusting his sword up underneath its circuits. Even then, he had trouble throwing off the electrified machina's shell.

Zen deflected one of the soldier machina's bayonets and cast magic to drain energy from its battery. Then, he quickly cast another spell to scan the mechanism for weaknesses.

As more soldier machina surrounded them, large, dark storm clouds gathered over Gagazet. But this was no natural storm. Within minutes, an electrical charge sent a titan of a unicorn thundering across the plains. Ixion galloped in a blustery wind, rather than on the ground. And as it closed in on the battle, the aeon sent shock waves into each of the warships. It sent another electrical wave into the crawlers before landing on top of one, turning it over, and crushing it beneath its hooves.

Lenne was awed seeing this aeon for the first time, but her awe was short-lived when bullets pierced Shuyin's protective magic.

"Shit!" Grimacing in pain, he clutched the wound. Blood seeped between his fingers and streamed down his arm.

The summoner cast a cure spell to draw out the bullet and close the wound. Then she replenished the blitzball player's shield before rushing to one of her fallen warriors.

Shuyin was no sooner healed than he snapped his sword down to block another attack from one of the annoying, but deadly little machina soldiers.

Zen used his lance to vault over the one targeting him, then punched the spear-head straight into the circuitry surrounding the AI chip. It was an instant kill, but now their summoner was nowhere in sight. The ronso growled in frustration at being attacked by two more of the contraptions before he could sprint away to hunt her down.

A manna ray discharged across what was left of Zanarkand's large-machina line of defense. Explosions ripped along each of the remaining robot unit fuel tanks, setting more of the shrinking ground aflame with black smoke. Ixion was banished.

Lenne shrieked and covered her ears, but then ran to check the bodies scattered on the ground. When Zen defeated the machina that attempted to entangle him, he ran after her.

Shuyin slammed a foot into the machina that obstructed him from joining them. Then, he sprinted toward the tall blue ronso that stood out among the humans and robots.

Lenne focused on healing the worst injuries first. She encouraged the wounded warriors as she helped them get back on their feet. And she enhanced their strength or ability to endure fatigue. But sometimes, she could only shed tears, promising to return and send them when all of this was over. It didn't matter that they weren't in her troop. Troops didn't matter anymore. Helping each other survive became the priority. "I need more ethers!" she begged of her guardians.

Zen handed her one of the vials from his pouch, then turned his back to her and readied his lance.

Shuyin unzipped his pockets and dug out several vials of ethers, passing them to her. As she tucked them around her clothing for easy access again, he noted the dark circles beneath her smoke-irritated eyes. Those magic potions were probably the only thing keeping her going because she appeared to be on the verge of exhaustion again.

More storm clouds gathered, but this time they turned the sky to frost before bursting into ice shards that struck everything from incoming warships to the smallest mechanized soldier. A blue, tattooed woman with long, thick dreadlocks—an ice goddess of sorts—emerged from the ice burst amid the enemy and shrouded a crawler in multiple ice storms. With a snap of her finger, it was utterly destroyed. And yet, more crawlers kept coming. Bevelle had more machina than Zanarkand had soldiers. And Zanarkand's human summoners, mages, guardians, and warriors were beginning to tire.

Taking his eyes off of the ice goddess, Shuyin spun around to see more machina speeding toward them and shook his head at the impossible numbers.

"Shuyin! Cover, Lenne!" Zen shouted in warning, pointing to the smoky sky.

A grenade soared overhead. Casting a slow spell on it, Shuyin grabbed Lenne and ran as fast as he could. When it exploded, he jerked her to the ground and bent over her. His back took the brunt of the fallout, but the grenade had finished off their most immediate machina soldiers. "You okay?" He sat back on his heels and helped her sit up.

She slipped a vial from the armband of her sleeve and used her teeth to pull the cork, swallowing the precious fluid as quickly as she could. Placing both hands on his back, she healed him again, then stood. "Chyuno ..."

"What?" With a wince, Shuyin reached for his dropped sword.

The captain of their warrior unit was running toward them. "We're low on ammo! I need a fast relay back to the mountain pass to see if the ronso have any hidden stores! Are blitzball players as fast on land as they are in water?" he breathlessly asked.

"Forget it, man! I'm not leaving my summoner!" Shuyin answered over the gunfire and explosions.

"Waste of time and guardian!" Zen informed the captain. "Ronso not have ammunition human machina use!"

Chyuno looked pushed beyond the brink of despair as he pressed a hand to his weary forehead and paced. "Then, is it possible for Lady Yunalesca to send us a batch of aeons, rather than one-at-a-time?" he asked of Lenne. "The ice queen is starting to weaken, and we really need something that packs an unforgivable punch all at once, or we're not going to make it much longer."

Shuyin checked the position of the sun. Was it already late afternoon? Daylight wouldn't last much longer either, at this rate. He was growing sick of the smell of smoke and burning flesh.

"It's impossible to summon more than one aeon at a time," Lenne answered.

Another manna ray went off banishing Shiva back to the Farplane and destroying another line of Zanarkand's defense. There it was then. They were doomed.

Chyuno didn't tell them that, though. "Well … keep up the good work, then." The discouraged troop leader tried to smile, but then turned around and jogged away.

Behind them, Shuyin saw another aeon coming toward them in a blur. This one was a samurai warrior in colorful robes with an animal companion at his side. The blur flew overhead to land amid the enemy and continued trying to destroy their endless flow of machina. Shuyin had no idea how many machina Bevelle had at their disposal, but even with aeons in every temple, there weren't that many temples on Spira.

A loud whistle caught their attention. "Chyuno!" Lenne cried out in warning and cast a shield spell around him as the missile struck the ground, throwing him far from where they stood. "Chyuno!" Jumping to her feet, she ran to where he lay.

Shuyin and Zen ran after her. Chyuno was bleeding profusely.

With a trembling hand, Lenne tried to close the wounds and restore him, but her magic would not flow. Frustrated, she snatched another ether from the waist of her skirt and swallowed it down. Then, casting the glass vial aside, she tried again.

The severely wounded captain caught her hand. "Don't waste your magic on me. Save it for someone who needs less aid and can keep fighting."

"I am not going to sit here and watch you die!" She slapped his hand away and cast the spell despite his protests.

Chyuno rose on one elbow and grabbed Shuyin's collar since he knelt close by. "There's nothing more you can do here! Break through their lines! Get behind them and then run like hell to the temple! If you want to save those people in the caverns, someone's got to tell the rest of Spira what's happening! Bevelle must be stopped!"

"We can't give up yet." Lenne pushed the hair from her eyes with a dirt-and-blood-stained hand. "Just ... lay low until someone can help you return to Gagazet, okay?" Reluctant to leave their captain, she ran to the next injured warrior on the ground. But she was too late for him. Biting back the urge to cry, but she let her head drop to the man's lifeless chest for a moment to recoup her inner courage. Then, Lenne rose to her feet and moved toward more fallen bodies—all dead. And now black mages and summoners were beginning to litter the battlefield alongside guardians and warriors.

Flanking her every step of the way, Shuyin and Zen fended off more machina until Zen found himself surrounded. When Shuyin defeated the two that attacked him, he sprang at and struck the same machina Zen was trying to beat back. Together, the two of them brought them down. But they had no sooner claimed that victory when something jumped up from the ground and bowled Shuyin over. Losing his sword, he rolled onto his back. When he opened his eyes, a large garuda sparkling with pyreflies hovered over him, and more pyreflies were drawn to it from nearby bodies of the dead. This wasn't a natural beast. The eyeless, winged cross between a bird and a reptile swooped over him and raked its talons across his chest, cutting long, deep gouges into his skin.

"Shuyin!" Lenne started to run to his aid.

Zen blocked her with a strong arm. "Send lost souls that bring fiends!" Darting away from her, the ronso recovered Shuyin's sword and pitched it close enough for the blitzball player to reach. Then, he cast his lance like a spear, piercing the flying creature's wing.

Lenne lifted her gaze to the battlefield. A swarm of pyreflies was beginning to rise above Zanarkand's lost warriors. "No ..."

As Shuyin reached for his sword, the flailing fiend clawed him again. Zen bounded forward and twisted his lance free, jerking the garuda back and down before casting drain magic on it. Shuyin tried again for his sword, and this time, he got it. Sword in hand, he stood and cleaved the beast through with an overhead sweep. It would have killed any ordinary animal, but this was a fiend.

The garuda dove at him again, so he slashed at its belly, opening another large wound before hopping back and daring it to come close again. Zen cast one more drain spell on the creature, then stabbed it again with his lance and dragged it to the ground at his feet. Shuyin slammed his sword down across its neck, severing the head completely. The garuda's body melted into pyreflies, leaving no trace that it ever existed, except for the long crimson streaks that covered Shuyin's chest and arm.

Lenne winced at his wounds and wanted to heal them, but Zen was right. There were too many dead and dying on the field now. The last thing they needed was a battle with Bevelle on one side and a battle with fiends on the other. Twirling her summoning staff in a graceful circle, Lenne cast the spell to open the Farplane so that the lingering souls could depart.

Shuyin dropped to his knees to catch his breath and stabbed his sword into the soft dirt and grass beneath him. He looked at the stinging lacerations on his chest and arms, but there was no rest for the weary. He could already hear more machina soldiers coming their way. Standing with a moan, he positioned himself between her and the oncoming threat so that she could finish her sending. How long would this go on? How long before they all ended up as pyrefly bait like so many others? Looking toward the cliffs that opened toward Bevelle, he wondered if Chyuno had been right about escaping while they had the chance.

))((

By sunset, all of the Zanarkand army's major machina were down. About two-thirds of the regiment lay dead on the battlefield. There was no way to break through and nowhere to hide for those who remained. And after the last aeon was defeated, no new aeons come down from the mountain to take its place. Lenne was having to alternate between doing sendings, healing the wounded, and keeping her guardians alive. But she was also too late to treat most of the bodies she found now.

When she ran out of ethers again, Shuyin and Zen surrendered the last of their supply. But all too soon, she was frantically searching her clothing folds for more. "I had one more ether left. I know I did! Shuyin, I can't run out of ethers!"

Clutching wounded ribs where one of the soldier machina tried to gut him, Shuyin scanned the ground. "Behind you."

Lenne moved her foot and spotted the vial she dropped. That potion was more valuable than all the gil in Spira right now. Drinking it down to the last drop, knowing there would be no more, she cast a heal spell on the warrior beneath her.

The warrior sat up and tested his newly healed arm, but as he stood, his attention settled on the southern cliffs. The expression that washed over his face made the others turn and look. After letting the machina do most of their fighting for them, Bevelle's human warriors were now rushing onto the battlefield to claim their victory.

"You have _got_ to be kidding," the worn and weary blitzball player spoke for them all. Seconds later, they had to ready their weapons and magic … again.

As the Bevelle warriors covered what was left of the battlefield, spreading rapidly toward what was left of Zanarkand's defenses, a bullet ripped through the ronso's unprotected chest, dropping him to his knees with a grunt.

"Zen!" The summoner gasped and cast a full-strength heal spell on him, then remembered to recast their shields.

Shuyin's shield spell deflected the bullets aimed at him, but the newly healed warrior wasn't so lucky. Growling in frustration, Shuyin charged the gunner who shot them and tried to disarm him. But the gun was fired into his leg during the scuffle, then grazed his throat. Flipping the hilt of his sword without looking down, he shoved it through the man's waist. The blitzball player's eyes widened in shock as his first human victim in this _incredibly_ long battle stumbled away from him and fell.

He stared at the dark crimson stain puddling beneath him, seeping into the already saturated ground, and he didn't know whether to feel relieved or afraid. Shuyin had never killed another person before. This wasn't even like the time the water fiend attacked him and Koji. He felt like he was going to be sick, but he had no time to process the experience before more human warriors rushed and surrounded them.

Zen roared and bared his fangs, warning them to stay back. He had only a lance, but a ten-foot-tall, blue lion-man splattered with blood was not something to take lightly.

"Looks like we found a summoner." One of the Bevelle guards leveled a flame thrower on Shuyin, who stood in front of Lenne, glowering at them in malevolent silence. "Step aside, boys. All surviving summoners are coming with us. We don't want to hurt her trying to get you out of the way."

Shuyin's glower deepened, and he raised his sword in both hands just enough to make it clear he wasn't budging.

The Bevelle warrior fired the flame thrower.

Lenne cast a nulblaze shell just in time to spare Shuyin from being fried. It held up to the machina flames, but the fire was followed by a rush of warriors. She continued to replenish her guardians with healing spells until the last of her magic ran out, but they were sorely outnumbered. And this time, she had no ethers.

With a rush of adrenaline and sheer desperation, Shuyin cut through armor, flesh, and bone, one opponent after another. The blade damaged human beings with ease compared to the machina he'd been fighting up till now. He fought with every ounce of strength he could muster, using his body as Lenne's shield, right down to his last breath before a blow to the head dropped him unconscious to the ground.

))((

"Shuyin!" Lenne screamed and lunged for him the minute that he went down, but she was seized and dragged away.

The mighty ronso made one final attempt to free her by stabbing his lance through her captor's heart, but another blade simultaneously caught him in the back.

"Zen!" The summoner collapsed to the ground and wept. "No, no ..." Pulled back to her feet, she was cuffed in chains before the Bevelle soldiers pushed her away at gunpoint.

Lenne cried out for her guardians the rest of the way to a small airship. There, she was cuffed to an inside rail, along with several other mages and summoners. Placing a hand against the cold, glass window, she tried to see the battlefield through her tears. Her heart ached, not knowing whether Shuyin and Zen were alive or dead.

"There was a ronso guarding this one," the Bevelle warrior who had taken her captive reported to the pilot in charge of prisoners. "That may mean the ronso need watching as well. Tell the maester we'll camp here tonight after dropping off these prisoners … just in case."

"Will do, sir," the pilot answered.

"Maester?" she whispered to herself in shock. The person behind all of this was not just a Bevelle official but a _maester_? The _temple_ in Bevelle was responsible for this attack? Yevon had been right about a spy among their own ranks! She felt as if she were going to swoon.

Before the window fogged over beneath the warmth of her hand, before the distance between their rising airship and the ground below became too high and frightening, Lenne saw an ant-sized handful of figures fleeing toward the mountains, retreating to Lady Yunalesca and the ronso. Zanarkand's army had suffered an overwhelming defeat.


	21. Chapter 21: Fayth of a Child

Chapter 21: Fayth of a Child

Standing up on top of the mountain, Yunalesca lowered her enchanted binoculars and cast a nervous glance toward the elder ronso and her husband. "They're retreating and bringing in some of the wounded. Please, someone, help them." The high summoner's daughter had exhausted every aeon and silently cursed the fact that the Bevelle temple remained useless. She made a mental note to create more aeons somewhere—_anywhere_—if they survived this.

Elder Kinan commanded some of his ronso warriors to go downslope and aid the battle-weary survivors up the mountain pass to the village.

Chyuno was among the survivors found and carried on the back of a ronso. "Lady Yunalesca," he addressed her with a heart full of regret. "We ... we couldn't reach the temple. We couldn't even reach Bevelle. They had _so many_ machina. We hardly fought any humans until the very end. We have failed Lord Yevon. We're so sorry."

The confidence she once felt was humbled as she watched the merciless slaughter in the grasslands, but she remained proud of Zanarkand's efforts. "I saw the whole thing, and our army was nothing less than valiant." She turned to her husband and the elder ronso. "If not for those ... damned machina! Warships and guns are bad enough, but how dare they send those inhuman, unmanned things against us!"

"Bevelle cowards!" Elder Kinan snarled. "Attack unarmed Zanarkand, then attack from afar. Ronso not let Bevelle into mountain pass or beyond it!" The ronso faced his mighty warriors. "Search plains for survivors! Watch for fiends. Keep fiends away from Gagazet. Keep Bevelle away from Gagazet," he added in a dark tone, cueing one group of ronso to head down into the grasslands and search the bodies left behind. He cued another group to the base of the rugged slopes as defenders. Then, Elder Kinan went a step further and sent another ronso group toward Zanarkand and assigned scouts for areas within the mountains. Bevelle would not make one move in their direction without the ronso knowing about it.

To Yunalesca, the idea of primitive beast-folk going up against technologically advanced warships seemed laughable at best. But the ronso had been gracious allies, and Zanarkand had no other cards left to play. She would not insult the elder by explaining his defenses were useless should Bevelle strike the final blow now. "I must tell my father at once," she told her husband and walked away.

Zaon grabbed her arm. "You're not going back to Zanarkand without me."

"You must stay and guard the refugees in the caverns." She glanced at the elder ronso and his few remaining tribesmen guarding the village. "You must help Elder Kinan keep Bevelle away from this place."

Zaon was a quiet man, but when it came to matters of protecting his summoner—his wife—he became quite bullish. "You are not going into that fiend infested place without me, especially now that you've exhausted your aeons. Assign another guardian here, and together we will speak to Lord Yevon."

"All who were capable of fighting were in that army," she reminded him. "We have nothing left!"

"You have refugees. And many of those refugees would willingly do whatever it takes to protect each other. If you have the strength, there might be a worthy soul among them." He gave her a desperate but meaningful stare.

Yunalesca understood what he meant and nodded in sad agreement. With a shiver, she asked Elder Kinan to escort them into the hidden caverns.

))((

Zanarkand's refugees crouched in cold, silent darkness somewhere in the recesses of Mt. Gagazet. They were uncomfortable sitting on stone, but the ronso gave them food and furs and made campfires to keep the vulnerable humans warm. All of them looked up expectantly as the summoner and her guardian entered the cavern. They wanted news of the war. Many had loved ones in the army sent to deal with Bevelle. But Yunalesca's and Zaon's expressions bore the sad news of their defeat without having to say a word. The refugees turned away in tears and sobs, finding support in each other's arms.

"The ronso are searching the battlefield for survivors," Yunalesca told them, wishing she could offer something more—something that would give them hope. Then again, that was why she was here. Her eyes scanned the strongest men and women first, but her attention eventually fell on the small boy she had taken under her wing during the long hike up the mountain. Softly, she approached him and crouched eye level where he sat. Touching her fingertips to his chin, she lifted his gaze to meet hers. "Your sister and her guardians have fallen in battle."

Bahamut's dark brown eyes welled at the news.

Yunalesca knew she should give the boy time to grieve, but there was no time to spare. "The army of Bevelle may be advancing toward us next. You have faithfully kept your promise to your sister. But does your heart still wish to defend your home?" she asked him. "Would you be willing to do something very brave to protect those who cannot protect themselves?"

A sob finally escaped his lips as tears trailed down his cold, red cheeks, but he nodded.

"Then, I have a very special assignment for you. Come." Taking his hand, she returned to their ronso guides. "I'll need a place where we can speak in private—where I will not be disturbed."

One ronso led her further down the winding tunnels into the mountain warrens and left the trio of humans in the back of a dark, bare cavern. Then, giving Zaon her torch, she left them to their business.

Yunalesca faced the child once more. "We would be honored if you were to become the guardian of the Bevelle temple, a position your sister could not accept because of her distraction with the blitzball player."

"Guardian of the Bevelle temple? Me? I don't know how to guard anyone. I'm not strong enough to do something like that."

"For this position, it doesn't matter how old or big or strong you are. What's important is your magic and wisdom … your faith. You are young, but I know another young one who guards the temple in Besaid and does a fine job of it because she has a capable and willing heart. I think you are capable. But … are you willing?" She could tell the boy was still full of doubt, but terribly sad thinking about the loss of his family and friends. "You won't have to shoulder all the tasks in the temple—only two. You must judge which summoners are worthy when they ask for your aid. And then, you must be willing to answer with that aid when they need it."

"How will I know what to do?" he asked.

"That is a question only you can answer. But the answer lies within your heart. Do you want to stop Bevelle from hurting people?"

"Yes."

"Then you need to trust me, so I can bless you. Have faith that all things work together for good in the end."

He gave a nod of consent and bowed his head, nervously awaiting her blessing.

Yunalesca summoned her magical staff and placed a hand on his head to comfort him. "There, there … You have nothing to fear. I won't harm you because you can't help us if you're not alive and strong." Swinging her staff like a long, low pendulum before him, she spoke softer. "This spell will give you everything you need to fulfill your new, honorary rank in the temple of Yevon. Just relax … and sleep." As the magic of the sleep spell made him drowsy, she gently lowered him to the cavern floor. "Sleep the sleep of ages, child. And you will never feel pain ever again."

When the boy was entirely under the spell, the summoner began an intricate dance and casting of spirit magic, as she had done for all the other Fayth before him. Arcane glyphs wrote themselves over and around the child's body until they hardened and solidified into a stone seal. A brilliant light rose from the tomb and floated around her before bursting into sparkles of light. When she finished her casting, she swooned and caught a large rock to keep her balance but looked to her husband, who was keeping watch behind them to be sure no one else in the cavern saw the secret transformation. "We will have to ask the elder ronso for the aid of his strongest men to move Bahamut to the Bevelle temple at the earliest chance. He must not be left here, forgotten."

Zaon nodded in agreement. "See if he is ready," he prompted, reminding her of their urgency.

Yunalesca waited a moment to be sure the boy's soul had time to pass from life through death into the spirit realm under the seal of the ancient spell. When she was sure he had healed enough to be resurrected, she closed her eyes and opened a portal to the Farplane, reaching out to his soul through the glyphs on his tomb drawn by the summoning spell. "Bahamut, I am your maker. Return to me. Show me your true colors, brave heart." The glowing glyphs danced beneath her feet, prying into the plane of magic. Yunalesca always looked forward to the initial surprise of how the soul of a Fayth manifested back into reality. But she had never seen such any soul transform into such a large, powerful form as what the small boy had become. "Incredible," she whispered and bowed before him.

))((

Bahamut rose from the glyphs and felt his body coalescing with warmth and light from a deep sleep. But when he looked down at his hands, they had long, sharp talons and scales that gleamed like polished ebony. He cried out in confusion and fear, but instead a throaty shriek that turned into a roar issued from his sharp maw. He flicked wings and a tail, nearly falling over the additional appendages as he turned around in the cramped cavern space. Then, he gazed down at his own body, entombed in stone. He had been too young to study the Fayth yet, but he shrieked again as he realized that was what he had become.

"Bahamut, you must be brave!" Yunalesca tried to calm him. "You are now a mighty aeon with powerful magic unique to you that you have yet to discover. Those people out there need you! They are all that's left of Zanarkand! Don't let anything into this cavern that might harm them. Do you understand?"

The dragon lowered his head and placed his forefeet on the tomb where his human body was preserved in magic and stone. Then, he crawled forward behind Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon to rejoin their ronso guide. Fear in a ronso's eyes was a rare sight—almost as rare as a black dragon.

"Do not fear him," Yunalesca told the ronso. "He has volunteered to protect us, like the other aeons you saw before him."

Bahamut squeezed himself through the tunnels, trying to keep pace with the small ronso and even smaller humans on their way back to the inhabited caverns. Just when he was beginning to wish the summoner had waited until she was outside to summon him, he heard the Zanarkand refugees gasp in awe and scuttle quickly out of the way in astonishment and fear.

"This is your new guardian," she told the survivors. "Bahamut will not harm you. Heed him well. And, above all, _honor_ him. Always remember that he willingly gave his life to protect yours." Yunalesca gave the people a few minutes to accept that the new aeon wouldn't hurt them. Then, she and her husband led him outside into the snow and wind. "Their lives depend on you now, dear one." Yunalesca stroked the dragon's black scales. "Be wise. Be fierce. And never doubt your heart, regardless of whatever fears your head whispers to you. You are the very definition of courage."

Free of the tight confines of the cavern, the black dragon sat in the snow and watched the summoner and her guardian head down the road to Zanarkand, where Yu Yevon remained as the sole guardian of his crumbled city. Bahamut looked at the snow falling around him and realized the cold meant nothing to his thick hide and scales now. Was he really dead? He still felt so … alive. His young soul felt very insecure about his strange new state of existence, but he faithfully remained at his post to perform his duty. He had little choice now.

))((

Zanarkand's prisoners of war were flown back to Bevelle and taken to the temple they were supposed to have been trying to secure and protect. Lenne expected to see Founders military uniforms all over the place, due to some kind of siege. Instead, Yevonite summoners went about their usual business, closing up shop for the night after a typical day of teaching students, training summoners, and performing sendings or healings within the city. They smiled and greeted one another with ease as if nothing at all had happened with Zanarkand.

"Please inform Maester Renuta that the Zanarkand prisoners are here," the Bevelle warrior leading them spoke to one of the temple summoners.

"Certainly." The summoner cast an uneasy look at the line of dirty, bloody, distraught prisoners and their cuffs, and his eyes lingered on Lenne for a moment. "Take them down to the holding cells, and I'm sure he'll be right with you," he told the warrior.

Lenne didn't know his name, but she remembered his face. She'd met him twice before, once for training, and once when he was seeking a guardian—both in Zanarkand. Why would a temple summoner be taking another summoner prisoner when he should be negotiating to set her free? She thought about giving him a piece of her mind using some of Shuyin's choice words, but she honestly didn't know what to say. She had no idea what was going on anymore.

Warrior monks took over the task of escorting the prisoners below the ground level. Lenne had never seen anything like it before. Bright, pulsing lights and circuitry were everywhere here, on the translucent conveyor paths that carried them further down, in the lifts, over the walls, even in the ceiling and floor far below the suspended framework of catwalks. "What is this place?"

"You're _inside_ Spira now, instead of on top of her," the warrior monk at her side answered.

"The ship?" Lenne was awed, momentarily forgetting the danger she was in.

The prisoners were led to another level that, at first glance, seemed to be a beautiful room full of large bird cages suspended by long chains above long waterfalls. But upon closer examination, Lenne realized it was a confinement chamber. The cages were ornate, as was the rest of the temple, but they were cages all the same. One cage per prisoner was lowered, and everyone was placed far enough apart that communication couldn't be accomplished without shouting. Her cuffs were not removed until she was secured inside the cage, and then the cage was raised by its thick bronzed chain and pulled back into place over the churning waterfall pool below. If the fall didn't kill anyone trying to escape, the turbulent water would.

Lenne gripped the bars and sank to her knees. She wondered how long she would have to stay locked up, but more than that, she feared that if Shuyin and Zen were ... She shook her head, unable to unsee the pyreflies rising over the battlefield. But she was unable to accept that possibility. It was too horrible to think about.

Several minutes later, a man in Yevonite robes came to each of the prisoners' cages with a couple of warrior monks. Lenne paid them no attention until they came to her. Then, she was stunned to see that this man wore the robes of a master, one of the governors of the temple. "Why is a temple of Yevon taking summoners prisoner?" she demanded.

The maester had a round body and a round face that did nothing to offset the sharpness of his hawk-like nose and eyes. He scrutinized her for a moment, then called up to her. "Are you a summoner or a black mage?"

Surely if this maester knew who she was, he would release her. "My name is Lenne. High Summoner Yevon promoted me to guardian of this temple. I was to come with Lady Yunalesca to install an aeon within these halls." Standing, she shook her bars. "I demand that you release me at once and explain yourself!"

The maester did register recognition at her name and supposed position. "Lower the cage," he told the guards, and one of them broke away to perform the command.

Lenne's cage was lowered to the floor, but she was not released. "Why are you doing this? You should be helping us!"

"I am Maester Renuta. While it's nice to finally meet you, I can't say I'm glad you're here. Although, I am relieved you are here under these circumstances rather than as our Fayth."

"As your Fayth?" Lenne squinted at the man, thinking either she heard him wrong, or he was horribly ignorant of Yevon's teachings despite his position. "I am _not_ your Fayth. I'm here to teach new summoners how to pray to the Fayth and summon its aeon. If we can get Lady Yunalesca into this temple, she could put the Fayth in place and summon another aeon to the battlefield to save what's left of our summoners, mages, guardians, and warriors. Please! One more aeon might at least help them escape before it's too late!"

Maester Renuta chuckled. "You are quite naïve to be offered such an important position, summoner. What do you think a 'temple guardian' is exactly? As a guardian is both sword and shield to his summoner, so a Fayth is sword and shield to the temple. Each of the other temples' guardians has been entombed as a Fayth. I know this for a fact because one of our friends from the Zanarkand temple accompanied Lady Yunalesca on those journeys and reported back to me about it. Lord Yevon wanted you to be a willing sacrifice so they could _bury you alive_." He stepped closer, but let that sink in for a moment. "Once your soul is trapped and bonded within that seal, summoners can summon your spirit back to life as an eternal guardian."

All of Shuyin's rambling doubts and warnings crashed down on her. "Yevon wouldn't do something like that. It goes against his own teachings." She refused to believe it was true, but her faith in that denial was slipping. "They offered their services to Yevon so that when they died fighting fiends, they could continue to be of service."

"Is that what they teach you, or is that your own theory? My friend at the Zanarkand temple has witnessed the Rites of the Fayth, and believe me, the victims are very much alive until the spell that melds them into stone suffocates them to death. And I'm almost positive he's not telling them the entire truth about that before he casts the spell to capture their souls. It is unethical, and therefore, our temple here at Bevelle will not condone it."

"_Your_ temple? Your temple belongs to _our_ temple!" she corrected him.

"Not anymore," he frankly informed her. "We disagree with the way Yevon is running things in Zanarkand. His philosophies on summoning the dead have become amoral. We want no part in human sacrifices. It is enough for a summoner to do white magic and send the dead. Besides that, he crossed the line of political safety when he declared Zanarkand's independence from the Founders. That immediately brought every other temple of Yevon under suspicion of mutiny—especially here in Bevelle, where we have access to the ship's controls. Ambassador Guregohe from the Founders came to put us under lockdown as soon as Yevon announced Zanarkand would not cooperate with the restrictions on magic. I knew he was planning on putting an aeon in here, and frankly, I didn't want it. So, Guregohe and I reached an ... agreement."

Lenne's eyes narrowed. "You mean _conspiracy_. Your _friend_ in Zanarkand was a spy, and _you_ are a traitor."

Renuta smiled at her harsh accusations. "Conspirators, perhaps. Traitors? No. We're keeping the summoning arts from becoming defiled with any more necromancy. We will continue to teach the majority of Yevon's philosophies, white magic, and Rites of the Sending. We will even honor his name as our founding leader. But we refuse to call the dead back to life in any form for any reason. There must be _some_ restrictions placed on magic, or no one will take responsibility when corruption takes over."

"You killed an entire city of people without any regard toward who was innocent or guilty. How dare you preach at me about ethics!" Lenne shouted at him.

"The Zanarkand temple was corrupt with necromancers! It needed _cleansing_."

"Most of the people you killed knew nothing about the Fayth or aeons!"

"Ambassador Guregohe thought the rest of Spira needed to see what would come of anyone defying the Founders' rights to command a ship _they_ built. Zanarkand was made an example while also removing the problem at its root," he frowned at her. "Bevelle will head the temple of Yevon from now on since we are their governing seat for Spira. Now we can work together in Spira's best interest rather than coping with Yevon's obstinate disagreements from afar. Zanarkand and Yevon became a liability for Spira. It's best that they trouble Spira no more."

Lenne trembled as she glared at him, but she wasn't sure if it was from fear or anger. The Bevelle temple had betrayal Zanarkand. But Yevon and Yunalesca had betrayed their followers, too. Losing Shuyin, Zen, and countless others on the battlefield was the fallout of both. She would probably never see her little brother again, and she had lost the rest of her family, friends, and everything she owned in the massacre that started the war. Lenne gave one loud burst of rage as she shook the door bars on her cage, but then slid to the floor to weep with frustration.

Maester Renuta turned away from the caged summoner to speak with the warrior monk watching this area of the confinement chamber. "This one warrants special attention. I want to speak with her further about Zanarkand's affairs, but it's late, we're both tired, and I'm awaiting reports from my scouts before making any final decisions. Have her cleaned, fed, and presentable in my office first thing tomorrow morning."

Lenne's chest rose and fell with quickening anxiety as she watched him walk away. Then, she was cuffed once more, and her door was unlocked and opened. "Let go of me!" She tried to resist, now that she knew beyond any doubt that the temple was responsible for the Zanarkand carnage. But she was too weak to fight, and struggling to escape would only end in her own death.

When she stopped resisting, she was escorted toward the prison bathroom and handed a plain robe to change into. "If you wish your own clothing cleaned and returned, leave it by the door," the warrior monk told her before he unchained her and left alone behind another locked door.

Lenne looked at herself in the mirror. She could hardly remember putting on her favorite dress a couple of mornings ago so that she could celebrate with Shuyin and her friends when the Abes won the Jecht Cup and tournament. The dress looked worse than she did now. Undressing, she set her boots and clothes by the door, then stepped under the showerhead and turned on the water. Mud and blood rinsed out of her hair and off of her skin to disappear down the drain, but water could not wash away the memories.

When she had showered and wrapped herself in the heretical robe, she came out of the bathroom with bare feet and wet hair and offered her wrists. The warrior monk, glad for her cooperation, escorted her back to her cage, where she was once again locked in, uncuffed, and hoisted above the turbulent water.

Lenne leaned her head against the bars and started to cry when she heard a loud zap a short distance away and looked up, startled. One of the black mages taken captive with her had tried to send a thundaga spell into the lock of his cage, but a permanent reflect spell on the cage made it backfire, electrifying the entire contraption. The mage fell dead within his confines. The summoner gasped and turned her back to the horrid sight. Then, she buried her face in her hands and tried not to relive the nightmares she had witnessed that day.

))((

When Shuyin woke that night, he was lying on and under a lot of furs next to a warm fire in an otherwise dark cave that was cluttered with more strung furs, dried meats and herbs, storage urns and baskets, and several spare lances. Obviously, this was a ronso dwelling, but that was small comfort. He started to roll onto his side to get up, but his body ached as if he'd been tackled by a whole team of behemoths. Moving each stiff limb, he was glad to confirm that his body was whole. But when he sat up, he found multiple new scars from rather large wounds on his chest and torso, many of which he didn't even remember receiving. "Lenne." His throat was dry, but he called to her, thinking she was the one who healed him.

"Lenne not here. Lenne taken to Bevelle."

Shuyin was startled by the gravelly voice and twisted to look behind him. The speaker was a female ronso he'd never met before. "And Zen?"

"Zen speak with Elder Kinan about machina war." She moved closer, and a large, blue hand with sharp claws gently cupped his shoulder, encouraging him to lie back down. "Do not disturb Elder. Zen come to you when ready to speak. Human stay here," the lion-woman added with a snarl as if daring him to contradict her. Then, she stood and left the cave.

Pulling the furs around his shoulders to keep out the mountain chill, Shuyin tried to remember the last thing that happened before he blacked out. He had shoved Lenne behind him, between himself and Zen. And the tingle of the healing spells sustained him until Lenne had nothing left to give. He remembered killing several soldiers—human soldiers, not just machina robots. But he never thought he could have done such a thing. And Lenne ... If she was in Bevelle, she was probably a prisoner, but maybe the temple could negotiate her freedom. After all, she was chosen to be their guardian. But Shuyin felt like he should be doing something to help, instead of lying on his back, now that he was healed. Waiting without knowing anything was harder than being on the battlefield, in some ways.

Zen entered the cavern, and Shuyin sat up straight. "What happened to Lenne? Do you know for sure she's in Bevelle? Is she okay?"

The young ronso always appeared to be solemn, but in this case, his mood actually matched his face. "Zen badly hurt on battlefield but saw Lenne taken to airship. Shuyin badly hurt, too, but still alive. Pokoa found us. Used white magic to heal us."

Shuyin guessed Pokoa was the female ronso that had also threatened to bite his head off if he disturbed the Elder.

"Zanarkand lost many," the ronso continued. "Bevelle lost few. Bevelle army quiet, but camp at foothills of Gagazet. Not go back to Bevelle. Bad sign, Elder Kinan says. More bad news for Zanarkand."

Shuyin let the news sink in. "They want to wipe us off the map. They're going to launch another attack to finish us off." He could hardly believe the extent of Bevelle's hatred. Closing his eyes, he listened to his own heartbeat and tried to calm the rage that was growing inside. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he opened his eyes to wipe it away. "I have to go to Bevelle," he decided. "I have to get Lenne out of there." He reached for his yellow and black blitzball uniform, but Zen thrust a large hand into his chest to push him down. He winced at the ronso's strength but grasped the corded forearm in a less-than-friendly grip. "Don't try to talk me out of it! Either come with me or get out of my way!"

"Blood raise suspicion in Bevelle." Zen indicated Shuyin's dirty uniform, then moved to a chest and withdrew the mostly black blitzball uniform that Shuyin gave him. This was apparently his cavern, and he had brought the souvenir home for safekeeping on one of his return trips.

Confused, but then surprised, Shuyin looked at his spare uniform with uncertainty. "It was a gift since you like blitzball so much."

"Much more than gift now. Free Lenne. Lenne more important than blitzball."

Shuyin accepted the uniform back and tipped his head in gratitude. "Thank you."

"Still Zanarkand uniform, but maybe Bevelle not know clean Shuyin make trouble for them." He dropped Shuyin's sword at the foot of the fur bedding. Then, the ronso gave him a fierce snarl and left.

Shuyin allowed himself a small smile. Always the trouble-maker …

))((

When he was ready, Shuyin met Zen outside of his cavern. Zen had been gathering a few supplies and insisted on accompanying the blitzball player to Bevelle to look for their summoner. But on their way out of the village, they were startled to see a giant, black dragon guarding the entrance.

The dragon jumped to its feet and bellowed at them, causing both of them to draw their weapons. Its large, horned head swooped low in attempt to get closer and sniff them. But the unintelligible growls and grunts it projected only made them back further away.

"Must be Yunalesca's last aeon," Shuyin suggested. "We could have used something like that on the battlefield," he warily grumbled as he walked a wide circle around it, due to its strange behavior.

The dragon jumped in front of them to block their path, then let out a deep-throated roar.

"Aeon not want to lose more people," Zen interpreted the action. "Aeon protect ronso and humans in village."

Shuyin shook his head and spoke to the aeon. "My summoner was taken to Bevelle. I have to bring her back."

The dragon quieted, clearly understanding his words, but it did not move.

"Get out of my way!" Shuyin ordered and snapped his sword down in front of him. He would fight the aeon if he had to. "It's my choice to leave! You protect the village, not me!"

To his surprise, the black dragon gave a sorrowful cry but backed away to let him pass. Shuyin was unsettled about it but ran forward with Zen before the dragon could change its mind. And as they headed down the snowy slopes toward the mountain pass, the dragon bellowed another oddly mournful roar behind them.

))((

In the dark of night, the pair traveled from Gagazet back down to the grasslands. Though the land was filled with shadows, the moonlight and heavily guarded campfires revealed the tragedy of what happened on the vast and formerly green prairie. Massive machina firepower and strong black magic had turned it into a graveyard with permanent scars of deep, gouged-out craters and long, cliff-like trenches. The bodies of Bevelle's deceased warriors had been transported back to the city, but the shells of thousands of machina still littered the ground. The bodies of Zanarkand's dead could not be transported home, and most had been left lying in the open without summoners to attend them. Shuyin frowned at their disrespect for Zanarkand's fallen and their stupidity in trying to get rid of Yevon and his magic in a way that would only create more fiends. All that death, only to create more death. All that pointless destruction had only made things worse.

As they continued down, Zen used the changed terrain to their advantage, crossing the plain by sneaking and hiding in the pitted plugs blown out of the ground. Shuyin was grateful to have the ronso on his side, because of his better vision in the dark and his predatory instincts and hunter's skills. Humans, he decided, had greatly underestimated these people. The ronso's blue body even blended into the darkness so that all Shuyin could see of him was his shock of long, white hair, his sharp yellow horn, and his luminescent, pale green eyes. By contrast, Shuyin felt very conspicuous with his yellow hair, fair skin, and patches of yellow and white in his uniform.

"Land open to large cliff on the right," Zen whispered when they paused behind a large, immobile machina to survey the remainder of their stealthy crossing. "High rock wall to left. Less danger," he decided. "Stay close to wall and low in shadows. Cleft between walls not far."

"What about fiends?"

"Ronso fight with stealth. Shuyin take cover."

"But—"

"_Shuyin take cover_," Zen insisted. "Shuyin go to Lenne."

Shuyin backed down beneath his friend's bright glare and soft growl. Whatever happened here, one of them needed to make it to Bevelle, so he reluctantly agreed to split their missions if necessary.

Zen crouched low and ran left toward the cliff wall. Shuyin was agile and quick enough to keep up, but the beast-man's path through the darkest parts of the field was challenging. He tried hard to stay directly behind the ronso, knowing one false step could turn an ankle or send him into an unexpected pit. When they encountered a small pack of lupines that came to scavenge the dead, Shuyin continued creeping forward in the shadows to let the ronso fight alone. Zen took on all three, enduring their bites, but silencing their snarls and howls with spells to avoid drawing the attention of the Bevelle patrols. Afterward, he drank a healing potion to mend his injuries, then ran to catch up with the blitzball player.

Eventually, they came to the cleft between the walls and sat down to rest. They were now behind the majority of the army's camp, but there were still patrols roaming the back area near the main road. Shuyin crouched on one knee to count the number of guards blocking their intended path. "Twenty. And there's probably more on the road into Bevelle."

Standing tall, Zen scanned the area around them. "Go over cliffs."

Shuyin looked up at the steep, rock walls. "Are you crazy? What makes you think I'm capable of scaling that?"

"Other cleft that way. Ruins can be climbed. Then, jump to low cliff. Go around top to Bevelle. Shuyin good jumper like ronso." Zen didn't give him time to argue before slinking out of their hiding place and hurrying along the wall toward the other crevice he mentioned.

Growling under his breath, Shuyin ran after him. He soon found himself cornered between two rock walls with no place to go except into the Bevelle patrols or up.

A noise not far away caught the attention of the army, and a scuffle broke out against fiends preying upon them in their sleep.

Opportunity had arrived, so Shuyin leaped, caught the edge of the low rise, and pulled himself over it. The ronso followed, then led the way further left, jumping over fallen monolithic stones down into the small ancient ruins. Shuyin hopped over the stones behind him but paused at the discovery. "Woah. Is this one of Yevon's temples?"

"Ruins of age before Yevon, like ruins above Gagazet." Zen climbed some stones among the ruins and jumped as high as he could reach. Catching the dirt-and-rock ledge with his claws, he broke his fall enough to reach one hand beyond, into the grass-covered ledge to pull himself over it.

Shuyin looked at his human hands. Even wearing a blitzball glove to improve his grip on his sword wouldn't help him latch onto a vertical, rock surface.

The ronso wrapped the belt of his pouch around the head of his lance to fashion something for his smaller friend to grab onto. "Jump."

Shuyin shook his head at the crazy rig but took the leap on faith. His hands caught the lancehead and held tight while the ronso pulled him the rest of the way up. "Thanks."

As the ronso situated his gear back to normal, Shuyin crept across the flat clifftop and looked down the other side along the road to Bevelle. The city's lights were visible from here, so he paused to marvel at the spectacle for a moment. "It's pretty. Lenne would probably like to see this … someday."

Dawn was on the horizon, so they had to move quickly. They weren't far now, but they still had to get to the other side of the road without crossing any of Bevelle's patrols. "Narrow place to other side at end of cliffs. Shuyin must not miss jump."

"No kidding. Shuyin miss jump, Shuyin go splat." He shot the ronso a flat expression as he followed to the place Zen indicated. "Good thing I practiced that sphere shot a lot."

Zen put a finger to his lips as they approached the light of the campfire from the patrol below. When the ronso saw that all the guards were looking away, he made the leap, landing safely on the other side of the cliffs between the grasslands and Bevelle.

Shuyin crept to the edge and waited. When the patrol looked away, he crouched, ran, and leaped. His feet touched down safely on the other side, but he dropped to a roll to slow his momentum. Then, they both crawled through the grass to the Bevelle road on the other side and continued in a crouched run toward the ocean. There, they dove into the water, swam to the city's docks, and came out beneath the piers. When they finally stopped to rest again, Shuyin leaned back against a barnacle-covered post.

"Zanarkand blitzball player wait here. Ronso move freely to scout Bevelle." Creeping out of their hiding place, Zen prowled around the docks of the large city by himself.

Shuyin closed his eyes. Lenne was here somewhere, but if he wanted to find her, he had to let the ronso become _his_ guardian. He decided they should check the temple first. If Lenne wasn't there, they could at least report what happened with Zanarkand and ask for shelter and food before searching the rest of the city.

If Yu Yevon had just let the summoners stay with the refugees, Lenne would have been safe. Yu Yevon had become overconfident and blinded by his own pride. And his summoners and citizens paid the price. Shuyin was beginning to hate the high summoner as much as he hated Bevelle now. The man was more concerned about his city than the lives of the people who made it what it was. This war had gained nothing for Zanarkand or Bevelle, but if their political leaders killed each other, maybe the rest of Spira could live in peace. Groaning at his rising cynicism and despair, he made himself dismiss politics to focus on Lenne. The only thing that mattered now was saving her.


	22. Chapter 22: Bevelle's Secrets

Chapter 22: Bevelle's Secrets

A few hours later, Zen returned with a robe, but Shuyin recognized its design immediately. "This is a temple robe. I can't go into Bevelle dressed like a priest of Yevon. That's worse than going in dressed like a blitzball player."

"Temple not under attack. Go to temple. Look like you belong there," the ronso answered.

Shuyin was relieved to hear the temple had not been attacked. That meant his initial idea to stop and ask for food and shelter might actually work. But he wondered why it had been spared since that would have been the more logical place for Bevelle to strike Yevon first. With no other plan at his disposal, he pulled the robe on over his uniform and tugged the hood low over his eyes. Then, he and Zen made their way through the city from the docks.

Having never been to Bevelle before, Shuyin didn't know his way around. But finding the temple was easy because of the way it towered over the rest of the red-walled city. Keeping his head down to avoid any possible recognition among blitzball fans, he followed the ronso past the light posts and down the straight and narrow streets.

Bevelle had always been the center of government on Spira, so it carried an atmosphere of royalty about it. When the temple was commissioned, it was added to the governor's palace. And though it seemed strange, the ronso had been right. There was no siege, and no one questioned their presence—not even upon walking through the heavily guarded doors. Zanarkand had been bombed and invaded by Bevelle on two fronts. Countless people were killed, lay dying, had been injured, or went into hiding. Yet here, no one seemed to know or care because life carried on as usual. It was eery.

"Well, the temple here is not only still standing, but it's also sickeningly calm compared to what the temple in Zanarkand looks like now," Shuyin groused under his breath. "Something's not right." The feeling of mistrust that crept over Shuyin regarding Lenne's temple guardian assignment returned. "Ask someone where the prisoners are being held," Shuyin whispered as his eyes darted around.

The ronso snorted with a low growl. "Zen already question to 'borrow' robe. Look suspicious if too many questions. Human in temple robe not suspicious here." But he planted his lance on the floor, rather than securing it behind his back. And his tail twitched, showing a hint of nervousness about the serenity of their surroundings.

"Fine. Wait here." Shuyin wandered around the semi-circle corridor toward the temple's back rooms, not quite knowing what he was searching for yet. "Excuse me," he caught a passing warrior monk. "I'm … from the temple at Kilika. Our summoners there had a question about our new aeon, Ifrit. I was hoping to speak to the summoner in charge of the aeon here. Do you know where I can find her?"

"Oh. Didn't they tell Kilika? There will be no aeon in the Bevelle temple—not after everything that's been happening in Zanarkand. You'll have to speak with Maester Renuta about that. He's the one that's personally overseeing all aeon and Zanarkand operations."

Shuyin's brows knit together. "What Zanarkand operations?"

"You know—the cleansing."

The blitzball player had to remind himself that ignorance might raise suspicion. Instead of asking more questions, he issued a confirmation. "The temple _here_ is ... cleansing the temple _there._"

"And everything's going according to the maester's plan, based on what I've heard. In fact, they just took a bunch of Zanarkand prisoners to the confinement chambers below." The warrior monk tilted his chin. "Didn't they tell the other temples about the negotiations reached with the Founders?"

_ Those bastards! Traitors!_ Shuyin's heart raced. "No one told us anything."

"Speak with Maester Renuta," the warrior monk suggested again. "Take the lift up to the balcony. You'll find him there, although you may be told to come back tomorrow since it is rather late."

Shuyin backed away and returned to his ronso friend. "Remember Yevon saying something about a traitor telling Bevelle about the location of the water garden aeons? I think we just found them."

"More than one?"

"The whole damn temple." Shuyin was so angry he could barely keep his voice soft as his sharp eyes searched the lift and balcony. "The maester of this temple is behind the attacks. Apparently, they reached an agreement with the Founders without Yevon, and didn't bother to tell Zanarkand the results."

Zen frowned. "Sounds like Zanarkand was result."

"Prisoners are being held below. Lenne's probably among them, but I'm going to go speak to this maester first and try to find out more about what's going on. Wait here, and if I don't come back, go back to Elder Kinan and Yevon. Tell them Maester Renuta is the one responsible for the 'cleansing' of Zanarkand. And it sounds like the other temples will be 'cleansed' of their aeons as well."

The ronso's thick brow furrowed with deep concern. "Bevelle dare not destroy other cities. But if maester betrayed Yevon, maester will not be kind to Lenne or Shuyin."

"I guess Yevon was right after all. The Founders seem to be itching to destroy Spira since we adopted aliens and magic without their approval." Shuyin gave the ronso a wary glance, then stepped onto the lift and looked nervously toward the balcony as he touched the controls. The lift, however, decided to go down, and it didn't stop until it reached the bottom-level landing pad. Stepping off, the blitzball player stared with awe at the pulsing lights and circuitry around him. "Woah. Spira really is a ship." Studying its history was one thing. Seeing it in person was another.

The lift rose back to the upper level, and that probably meant someone else was coming down. A quick survey of the catwalks and conveyor paths left him guessing which one led back up. When the lift touched down again, and the voices of the riders hushed for a second, he knew he'd been spotted.

"Oi! Summoners aren't supposed to be down here."

One thought outweighed that warning: Lenne might be down here somewhere. Shuyin chose one of the halls … and ran. He didn't know where he was going, but he could hear the heavy boots of the warrior monks in pursuit as he sprinted through a large opening and out onto a ledge, barely catching himself in time to avoid a nasty fall to what seemed to be a dark, bottomless pit. Pushing down his hood, he frantically looked for a new escape.

Pumping and grinding machina completely surrounded him. The ship's engine, maybe? There was nowhere to go but down, and though he couldn't see the bottom of the gaping hole, there were floor levels built within the upper rim of it—rings of stacked balconies. He saw no stairs or lifts that led to them, though.

"Stop right there! You're under arrest!" one of the warrior monks shouted.

Stripping off the robe, Shuyin hopped onto the ledge and jumped, landing on a large, thick chain. Sliding down the length of the bumpy chain was worse than going down a playground slide standing up, but a lifetime of surfing and blitzball gave him the sure-footed agility necessary to make it work. Trying not to look down at what awaited him if he fell, he leaped onto the solid surface of one of the lower levels as soon as he was close enough. Then, pausing only to glance up at the warrior monks who cursed his stunt but made no attempt to copy it, he took off running again.

))((

"Just let the fiends get him," one warrior monk said to the other. "There's no escape unless he comes back this way."

"Are you kidding? Did you see who that was? I'd know that uniform anywhere—he's a blitzball player from the Zanarkand Abes. He could be a spy, or worse, considering where he's headed."

"Damn! I forgot about that. I'll get back-up. No way am I going down there alone. Stay here in case he comes back."

The warrior monk who remained behind sighed as his comrade ran back to alert the temple about the security breach. He liked blitzball, and while he did not condone necromancy, of course, it seemed like such a shame to destroy the best stadium and players in Spira. Shaking his head, he readied his gun and kept a watchful eye on the exit the Zanakand intruder had taken.

))((

Running through the tunnels of the lower levels, Shuyin came across some interior towers guarded by large machina warriors. He could have gone back and taken another passage, but towers would either lead him back up or toward the prisoners. Shuyin unsheathed his sword. Thanks to his battlefield experience, he now knew where to find critical circuitry areas. Making the most of his agility and speed magic, he attacked the machina warriors until they were nothing but heaps of buzzing and beeping scrap metal. The tower doors, however, had combination locks on them, and each time he got a wrong combination, more machina warriors were summoned to remove him. He defeated each new batch of guardians, but each fight exhausted him a little more. "Damn it! Open up for me!" he finally yelled at the doors in frustration.

Hitting the last switch, he watched as the combination lock finally turned. But instead of opening the doors, the lock opened the floor. And once again, the path only led further down. "Crud. What kind of sick amusement park architect designed this place? This is worse than Zanarkand's one-way and dead-end streets."

After leaping down each step to the one below it, he ran through the first corridor until it branched in three directions. Fiends began to appear here and there. "Oh, this can't be good." Growling under his breath, he decided forward was still better than backward, picked one of the passages, and headed straight for the fiends, sword ready.

Shuyin avoided and fled from as many fiends as he could, of course. His goal was to find Lenne and escape alive, not waste time or energy on every spirit that haunted the dungeons under Bevelle. But did question why there were so many. Finally, he came to a large opening at the end of one hall and stopped to catch his breath. The room was dark except for a few guide lights around the very high walls and ceiling. Multiple cables spilled from the dome and walls, where they connected to something hovering precariously behind a small round platform over an endless drop into nothingness. It was the largest, most frightening looking machina he had ever seen.

Curiosity got the best of him. Walking toward it with caution, he thought it looked more like a weapon of some kind than part of the ship's engine. Someone at the Zanarkand temple mentioned a rumor regarding Bevelle's ultimate weapon. Was this it? If so, maybe it was big enough to finish off Bevelle's army before they could attack Gagazet. Maybe it was big enough to, at least, take on the Bevelle temple and get them out of the city.

Shuyin checked over his shoulder. No fiends or people had followed, so he sheathed his sword, moved closer, and stopped for another study. Apparently, one had to enter this machina from the bottom and go inside to control it. Should he try? He jogged even closer, then stopped again. Doubts ... No. _Determination._ "You know, you're all I can count on to save Lenne."

A noise clanged behind him.

Shuyin looked over his shoulder, ready to challenge anyone or anything that tried to stop him, but when nothing came of it, he moved forward again. Entering the giant weapon, he climbed the step ladder under the gun barrel to the controls on top of its horned, skull-shaped head. He was surprised to find the control panel was some type of keyboard—more like that of an organ or piano than a computer. That meant it was probably programmed using musical notation. Sitting down at the controls, he scanned the labels until he heard the noise from the corridor again—a reminder he didn't have long to learn how to do this. He tried pushing various keys and buttons, but nothing seemed to turn the machina on.

"Hostility undetected," an almost human, yet somewhat tin-quality, voice spoke from the control panel.

Startled, Shuyin almost fell out of his chair to duck behind the control panel, but when he scanned the platform below, no one was there.

"Elevated vital signs indicate urgency," the voice spoke again, sounding oddly masculine and feminine at the same time. "Defense mode initialized, but on standby. Awaiting target specifications. Please proceed."

Shuyin's eyes widened with awe. He had forgotten the summoner at Yevon's meeting said it was an intelligent weapon. "I … don't know how." He felt stupid talking to a machina and had no idea if it could hear or understand him.

"Auto-pilot initiated. Specify the target name and/or location. Specify the mode of attack or defense. I will select the appropriate action."

A cold sweat beaded his palms and forehead. "Bevelle's army. Defend Zanarkand and help me get my girlfriend out of here."

"One target per program, please."

Faced with having to choose between defending Lenne and Zanarkand, Shuyin released a painful sigh. "Forgive me, Bahamut. But if we get out of here, we can help fight there. Target Bevelle temple guards and officials. Help me save Lenne."

"Bevelle temple guards and officials—offensive target confirmed. Lenne—defensive target confirmed. Please identify the location of Lenne." Vegnagun guided him through each step.

Shuyin felt a pit grow in his stomach. "Somewhere in the confinement chamber. She's a summoner from Zanarkand who was taken prisoner—a human female with long, brown hair."

The monitor above the keyboard blinked on and began scanning the hanging cages in the confinement chamber one-by-one. "Please select and confirm the location of defense target 'Lenne.'"

Shuyin stared anxiously as the screen displayed several empty cells and unfamiliar faces. Eventually, Lenne's cage was included. "That's her!"

"Location of defense target 'Lenne' confirmed. Seeker sensors locked into position—confinement chamber, cage D-5."

As the monitor locked onto her, Shuyin put a hand to the screen. She looked so sad. "Lenne, I'll get you out of there. I promise."

Her head lifted, and she looked around in surprise. "Shuyin?"

Surprised that she could hear him, he pressed both hands to the screen. "It's me! I'm here. I'm coming for you, okay? Just hang on."

"Where are you?" She stood and looked around more.

"Is there a sphere camera or com link nearby? I see you on a monitor."

The summoner lifted her chin and scanned the ceiling. Small spheres set into the framework around them were positioned facing each cage for monitoring the prisoners. "Shuyin!" she looked straight at him with a pleading expression. "Please, don't do anything stupid! If they catch both of us, neither of us will get out of here alive."

"Program selection for seek-and-protect mission enabled. Ready to begin. Please choose the battle strategy song," the hulking machina prompted.

"Who was that?" Lenne asked.

"It's ... some big machina I found that's going to help us." The visual on the monitor blinked to display a list of songs, which were accompanied by descriptions of battle mode behaviors that the weapon was capable of performing. Apparently, the key to controlling the machina was in knowing how to play the song. There was no sheet music, though. That meant he was limited to songs he already knew. "Thank you, Mom, for all those years of boring piano lessons," he muttered as he made his selection.

"Freeze! Come down out of there right now!" Several warrior monks ran into the room and aimed their guns at him.

Lenne heard the threat as well. "Shuyin, what's going on?"

"Hands in the air! Behind your head!"

Shuyin's eyes darted to the music selections on the screen. All he had to do was pick one and start playing it. However, if he started playing it and they shot him before he could finish programming the command, he would fail to free her. He had already failed his mother and his friend. He refused to lose another life that was precious to him.

"Fire on three." The warrior monks raised their rifles and took aim. "One … two ..."

Shuyin placed his hands behind his head and stood. "Live to fight another day," he told himself as he moved toward the ladder and descended. He was barely off of the last step when he was grabbed by the back of the shirt and thrown against the side of the weapon for a quick pat-down. His sword was removed, and his hands were cuffed behind his back.

"Shuyin?"

He could still hear Lenne's voice calling from the monitor before they led him away from the machina and up to the confinement chamber, shoving him into a cage of his own.

"Zanarkand's not getting its hands on Vegnagun, pal," the warrior monk told him. "You're going to be real sorry you ever found that thing. Oh, and don't be getting any ideas about doing magic to escape. Those bars can withstand any element, and there's a reflect spell on them."

The cage was locked, and his cuffs were removed through the bars. Then, the contraption was lifted from the ground, suspended over the water to further prevent escape. The warrior monks walked away, talking amongst each other, congratulating themselves for their well-timed capture.

"Vegnagun." Shuyin implanted the name in his memory and searched the other cages for Lenne, but she was apparently in a different section of the chamber. After a few long minutes, he slid to the floor, discouraged. He was still alive, so he wasn't giving up completely, but how was he supposed to save Lenne now that he was stuck in a cage?

))((

The following morning, every muscle in Shuyin's body ached from the discomfort of having to sleep on the bottom of the cage floor. At least the plains had grass when he was forced to sleep on the ground. His cage was being lowered, so that was what woke him.

"Rise and shine," a warrior monk called. Moments later, he approached Shuyin with a tray of food and slipped it through the thin slit at the bottom of the cage. "You can go to the toilet now, or you can wait until after you eat."

Shuyin's stomach felt as if it were turning inside out, but for once, he agreed with Lenne that pre-packaged stuff looked unappetizing. "Just get me out of here." Standing, he waited for the door to be unlocked.

"Hands," the warrior monk cued him first. "Turn around."

Shuyin blinked at him with annoyance, but then sighed and obediently turned his back to the bars. "One minute, I'm shooting a blitzball high above a sphere pool, and the next, I can't even go to the toilet by myself."

"You were trying to steal Vegnagun." The monk unlocked the door and escorted him toward the small restroom.

"I was looking for someone," Shuyin groused.

"Yeah. That's why you were up there, giving Vegnagun commands."

"I was lost, and it offered to help."

"Anything below ground level is restricted. You shouldn't have been down there in the first place."

"I didn't know that. The lift took me down."

"Whoever used it last probably forgot to reset the switch." He stopped outside of the restroom door. "You could have easily switched it to go back up, but instead, you went wandering. And nobody's down here but prisoners, fiends, and Vegnagun. So, don't try to act innocent. Zanarkand sent you to steal Bevelle's weapons because they're bigger and better than any aeon. Machina don't get tired. Machina work without complaints, even under bad conditions. And if they break down, it's easier to 'resurrect' them."

Shuyin gave the guard a grim look. "Zanarkand didn't care about your weapons. Zanarkand just wanted to be left alone." He started to enter the bathroom, but then stopped and lifted his wrists out behind him. "Are you going to unlock me, or am I not allowed to this part by myself, either?"

"Inside escorts are only for violent offenders or ones likely to escape." He shrugged and unlocked the cuffs to temporarily release him. "You seem pretty harmless. Just be glad I'm on duty instead of Mapok." The warrior monk gave him a smug smirk. "I hear he has a thing for blonds."

Shuyin considered decking him right then and there and making a break for it, but one natural urge was replacing another at the moment. He stepped inside and shut the door.

))((

The warrior monk shook his head in amusement and looked up at the sound of another guard entering the area. "Rehan!" he called to him. "Is the maester coming down to see the prisoner that found Vegnagun yesterday?"

"Yeah, in a few minutes." Rehan returned as he headed in the opposite direction. "Hey, did you hear that Zanarkand was on its way to attack us yesterday? Like a bunch of ghosts are going to be able to stop a crawler, huh?" He laughed before turning the corner and heading into another holding area to deliver food in there.

The door opened, and the blitzball player stepped back out. The warrior monk turned around to cuff his prisoner again, but _then_ Shuyin decked him and made a break for it.

The warrior monk recovered from the punch, scowled at having misjudged his prisoner, and gave chase. The blitzball player was fast, but the maester had just come into the prison and gave his bodyguards the signal to aid in his capture. Shuyin found himself caught between them and thrown onto his stomach until they could cuff his wrists once more.

"You shouldn't have done that." The warrior monk escort pulled him to his feet and pushed him back toward his cell. "Now, you get an escort inside, as well."

"Who's the runner?" Renuta asked as he drew near the cage where they stopped.

"The guy caught looking for Vegnagun." The warrior monk shoved the obstinate prisoner into the cage and pulled the door shut, locking it before gesturing for him to come near so he could have his cuffs removed.

))((

Shuyin fumed about his failed attempt to escape. He would have left his escort in the dust if those other bodyguards hadn't arrived when they did. "I wasn't looking for Vegangun! What's the maester of a temple of Yevon doing with something like that anyway?" He backed into the rails to have his cuffs removed, the turned to confront the maester of the Bevelle temple, head-on.

"Vegnagun was created to defend Bevelle," Renuta answered.

"From _what_?"

"Zanarkand, of course."

"Zanarkand never threatened Bevelle with anything like that!"

"Well, of course not. There is only one Vegnagun. But Zanarkand became a threat, so we had to create many, many more machina to defend ourselves from a likely attack."

"We didn't attack you!"

"Then what was that business that happened yesterday in the grasslands?"

"You attacked Zanarkand first!"

"Because Yevon was creating an army of aeons. The question, therefore, is why was he creating an army of aeons, if not to use them for war?"

"He created them because you were mass producing machina weapons."

"Which we were producing because we heard of his aeons. It's pathetic to have to constantly upgrade our defenses to such a degree, I know, but it's better than becoming sitting ducks."

"Is it?" Shuyin sarcastically retorted.

"Well, you tell me. Our army had a complete victory over Zanarkand's, thanks to those cleverly designed weapons."

"At least Zanarkand's warriors aren't a bunch of damn cowards sitting behind remote controls for hunks of scrap metal!"

"The fact remains that our 'hunks of scrap metal' had fewer casualties and won. War really is better suited for machina than humans, don't you think?"

"Except that humans still pay the price in the end." Shuyin glared at him.

Renuta studied their newest prisoner with keen interest. "You're a blitzball player, yes?"

"I was before my stadium was destroyed."

"I rather enjoyed watching the game sometimes." He snapped his fingers as a name and face came together. "What a pity." With a sigh, he turned his back on Shuyin to speak to the warrior monk in charge. "Don't let him out of that cage unchained again. Not for anything. Our army is ready to march through the mountain pass today to finish the cleansing of Zanarkand. I doubt they can do anything to resist us, but we can't risk him attempting to steal Vegnagun again." He cast Shuyin a wary glance. "Have the summoner brought to my office as soon as possible. I'm ready for her now."

The warrior monk that had been with Shuyin raised his cage back up into the ceiling, then left for another confinement chamber.

"Summoner?" Shuyin grasped the bars and pressed his face between them. "What summoner?" His eyes followed the warrior monk's exit, and his mind marked that corridor.

"She is of no concern to you," Renuta curtly answered from below.

"Is her name Lenne?" He called out, but his question was ignored as the maester and his bodyguards left. Shuyin turned his attention back to the corridor the warrior monk had taken. Minutes later, Lenne was escorted through his holding chamber toward the main exit. "Lenne!" Shuyin growled and rattled his cage with all of his strength, wishing it would break and drop him.

))((

Lenne stopped and looked around. "Shuyin? Shuyin, where are you?" But the warrior monk shoved her forward to keep moving. She tried more than once to turn around and run back into the confinement chamber where she'd heard her guardian call out to her, but each attempt met with a stern reprimand and push forward from the warrior monk. So, she told herself to be patient and look for him on the way back.

"Ah, well, I guess maybe he was looking for someone after all," the warrior monk remarked with a smirk. "Too bad, he looked in the wrong place." Walking Lenne back up the other levels to the lift, he rode with her to the balcony. Then, he escorted her into Maester Renuta's office and stepped back without unchaining her hands.

"Now then ... Lenne." The maester seated himself at his desk and rested his elbows on it. "I will get to the point. You are alive only because of who you are. Being Yevon's chosen sacrifice means he trusts you. You know him well, and he's told you things. He told us Zanarkand no longer wished to be part of Spira, so we are going to grant his wish. The army of Bevelle is getting ready to finish the cleansing. There is probably nothing Yevon can do to stop us at this point, however, if he attempted to escape, where do you think he would run to?"

Lenne pressed her lips together in refusal to answer. She closed her eyes at the painful thought of those machina warriors raiding the ronso caverns where her little brother was hiding with all the other refugees.

"All right then, what about this army of aeons? We know about the ones in the east water gardens and temples, but are there any others? If so, where are they located?"

Lenne could hardly call Zanarkand's aeons an army, but she remained defiantly silent.

Renuta's stare took on an impatient chill. "Perhaps, I could offer to spare your life in exchange for those two bits of information."

She lowered her chin, allowing her long hair to form a veil between herself and her interrogator.

"What if I offer to spare the life of the blitzball player?"

Lenne gasped and looked up. To spare Shuyin's life meant condemning everyone else. She was about to say something about the cruelty of having to choose between them, but if he were here, he would not agree to spare his life at the expense of others. She was sure of that. His loyalty was so solid, so strong that he would rather die than betray helpless survivors. Besides, there was no guarantee this maester would keep his word. He had already betrayed Yevon and Zanarkand. Lenne turned her head toward her shoulder and tried not to cry.

"Very well, then." The maester sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Shyness is of no use to us. Schedule her for a plunge, but do it beneath his cage. He might value her life more than she does his."

"You bastard." Lenne seethed as she was escorted to the door. "He won't give in to you! You might as well push us both in!"

"Ah, she does speak." Renuta grinned. "But what kind of fool do you think I am? He's a blitzball player. His execution will be by something other than water. Perhaps we should schedule something for him beneath her cage instead, hm? Take her back to her cage until I can give this a little more thought," he told the warrior monk. "If the Zanarkand prisoners are no help finding Yevon, it might be time to start asking the ronso a few questions."

Lenne started to squawk in protest again but forced herself to keep it in. Any reaction she gave toward the ronso's aid would spell disaster for everyone on Gagazet. She allowed herself to be escorted back without any trouble until she reached Shuyin's confinement chamber. Then, she shouted, "Shuyin! Don't tell him anything! I don't care what he offers, don't take it! Promise me you won't bargain with him no matter what he offers!"

"Silence!" The warrior monk hurried her along the path and down through the corridor into the next confinement chamber.

))((

Shuyin had been sitting in the bottom of his cage, eyes fixed on the exit, waiting for Lenne's return. "Lenne!" Standing, he rocked the cage back and forth, ignoring the tray of uneaten food that slid around his feet. But the cage wouldn't budge. And when he peered through the bars to the ground below, she was already gone. Leaning his forehead on his wrist against the bars, he grimaced in frustration, but at least, she was still alive. He would not give up hope while she was alive.


	23. Chapter 23: Tragic Failure

Chapter 23: Tragic Failure

Shuyin sat on the floor of his cage, watching as the warrior monk climbed an impossibly tall ladder to change the monitoring spheres near the cages for new ones. "Why bother to record me? It's not like I can do anything interesting in here?" he groused. When the monk didn't respond, Shuyin raised his volume a notch. "If this war drags on much longer, I think I may die of boredom."

The monk cast an irritated glance toward the prisoner. "Bah! The only reason the war's dragging on is because Zanarkand refuses to surrender."

Shuyin got to his feet. "If you'd stop attacking, there wouldn't be a war! Someday your precious weapons will end up destroying you."

The monk removed one sphere and replaced it with another, placing the used one in a bin bound for the review office. "Not as long as they stay under _our _control - which is why you're under lock and key, remember? Vegnagun's supposed to be under wraps because it still has a few kinks they have to work out. It can't tell friend from foe, or they would've used it on Zanarkand already. But now that you know where it is and almost figured out how to use it, you're probably going to be executed. Oh, by the way, that summoner you were trying to talk to? She asked about you. I guess you two are an item - or at least you used to be. She's going to be executed for heresy once they have all her information on Yevon. So, whether it was for Vegnagun or your girl, _you failed_. Guess you're sorry now that you came all this way just to rot in here, huh?" He replaced another old sphere with a new one.

Shuyin's eyes narrowed on the antagonistic man. "No, I'm not sorry! I didn't do anything wrong!" He grasped the bars of his cage, but the warrior monk only snickered, tucked the review office bin under one arm, and walked away. "I know you're listening! If she was your girl, what would you do? How can you blame me for trying to use your weapon? It was the only way to save the summoner! What would you do if you were me? Let me out of here!" Shuyin watched the man exit the area. "I want to see her," he added in weak disappointment, still clutching the bars of his cage as he lowered his head between his arms and slumped back to his knees. Lenne was to be executed. His own fate didn't matter, but he was running out of time to save her.

Shuyin's cage suddenly jerked and dropped toward the ground with uneven, jarring falls. The recently placed sphere dropped out of its nesting socket to the floor. And a ronso come through the same exit the warrior monk had used. "Zen ..."

The ronso used a keycard to open the door. "Find Lenne. Help escape." Scooping the cracked sphere from the floor, he secured it in the pouch at his hip.

"How did you—"

"Talk later. Find Lenne." The ronso passed the keycard into Shuyin's hand and ran back to the exit to stand watch. "Hurry!"

Shuyin didn't have to be told again. He ran straight to the other section of the confinement chambers and ran down the path between the cages, searching for her.

"Shu?" When Lenne saw him running toward her, she stood and grasped the bars of her cage. "Shuyin!"

"We have to hurry. We're both up for execution if we can't get out of here." He didn't know where to find the cage controls, and he didn't have the patience to look for them. So, he placed the keycard between his teeth and jumped up to the hanging cage. Pulling himself up hand-over-hand, he reached the lock, flipped the card into it, and opened her door. "Zen's waiting at the exit."

Lenne looked down and whimpered at her distance from the floor. "I can't jump that far."

Shuyin was about to argue but remembered her fear of heights. "Get on my back." He pitched the key to the ground so he wouldn't be distracted with it.

"What?"

"Climb on my back! Hurry!"

Lenne grabbed onto his arm and neck and swung herself around to his back.

Shuyin lowered himself to the bottom of the cage once more. "Shimmy down to my ankles. Then you should be safe to drop the rest of the distance to the floor."

Lenne did as he instructed until she was hanging onto his ankles. Then she released his feet and dropped to the floor.

A second later, he touched down behind her. His fingers were killing him, but she was free. Grabbing her hand, he started to run to the ronso when he saw the ronso running toward them instead.

"Men with guns! Run!" Zen shouted.

_Run? Where?_ Shuyin uttered a curse and looked up at the sphere monitors but held fast to Lenne's hand as he turned around and ran down the opposite corridor. Then, he took whatever other passages presented themselves.

It wasn't long before Shuyin realized they were back in the maze he previously got lost in. But being in them once before didn't help with navigation. All corridors on the lower levels still looked the same. "There's got to be a loop around here somewhere that can take us back toward an exit." Shuyin stared at the intersecting, identical hallways, not knowing which way to go. "I think Vegnagun was that way."

"Vegnagun?" Lenne asked.

"Bevelle's ultimate weapon. It really does exist, and I found it. Maybe we can use it to get out of here and stop Bevelle's army from hitting Zanarkand again."

"What? No!"

"You said if we could destroy their weapons, more people wouldn't get hurt, right? Well, if we destroy the temple and their army, then people who want to live in peace won't have to get hurt."

"I can't let you destroy this temple," she argued.

"The temple's joined forces with the Founders! They're the ones that attacked Zanarkand!"

"I know, I know. Maester Renuta grilled me about a rumor that Yevon was planning to build an army of aeons. He said Bevelle wanted no part of it. They're content with just doing sendings and white magic, so they've sided with the Founders about the creation of aeons being a sign that Yevon's magic has gone too far. Since Yevon wouldn't compromise, Maester Renuta did. He doesn't want an aeon in this temple, and he wants Yevon to stay away from it. Do you know why? He said this temple was built on top of the entrance into Spira's bridge. That's where we are. That's why a dungeon and a jail are down here."

"Men with guns come!" The ronso became impatient with their conversation when they needed to flee.

Picking up on Zen's urgency, Shuyin tugged Lenne's hand. "We have to get out of here! Vegnagun is the only thing that can help us escape and destroy the traitors!"

Lenne refused to budge. "Didn't you hear what I just said? If we're inside the ship's hull, the Heart of the Farplane is right beneath us! So there's a portal to the negative realm somewhere around here as well. If you fire something as big as Vegnagun near the Farplane, it could destroy more than the temple! It could destroy the entire city, possibly the entire world. The Farplane is what keeps us alive. I can't let you destroy this temple."

"I won't aim it at the Farplane! I'll aim it at the guards trying to kill us!"

"No more talk!" The ronso pushed them apart. "Zen distract guards. Shuyin and Lenne go another way. Guards pass. Then, Shuyin come back and go up to temple!" Without waiting for their responses, the ronso ran back in the direction they came from.

Still holding Lenne's hand, Shuyin ran in the opposite direction. Lenne struggled to keep pace with the professional athlete. Both looked over their shoulders as the sounds of footsteps echoed through the halls behind them. Coming to another intersection, Lenne and Shuyin pulled in opposite directions, but his tug was stronger, causing her to fall—a fall that would cost them precious time. Still, he helped her stand before fleeing down a different corridor with her.

"Too fast ..." Lenne was breathless, lagging behind again. "And haven't we been this way before?"

Spotting the opening that led to Vegnagun, Shuyin pulled her in with him and pressed her shoulders to the wall inside the door. "Stay here," he whispered, catching his breath. "If you stay here where it's dark, they won't see you, and you can watch for guards. If they come in here, slip out behind their backs. Don't wait for me. Find Zen and the exit."

"No!" she hissed and grasped his hands as he tried to walk away.

"We have no other way out!" he hissed back. "This is a dead-end!"

"You don't know how to operate that thing!"

"I'll find a way. I have to." His eyes pleaded with her to trust him.

"Shuyin ..."

They both knew that if he was caught, there would be nowhere else for him to run. The blitzball player jogged toward Vegnagun once more, checked over his shoulder for the summoner's position by the door, then entered the enormous robot shell. Once more, he climbed the ladder past the gun's inner workings to the control center at the head. This time, he knew what to do. Sitting down, he struck the opening chord to the song he chose last time. His previous program settings still displayed on the control panel's monitor. Vegnagun disconnected from its power source and prepared to use its laser, aiding him in automating as many controls as it could. The entire room went pitch black, and steam began to rise from the weapon's monstrous face. The song that came from it was eerie, dark, and unbalanced. Then, Vegnagun's mouth opened, its gates parted, and the inner workings of the large gun barrel came to life, gathering energy.

Lenne could stand it no longer. Running onto the platform behind him, she spread her arms. "You must stop! That's enough!"

Shuyin stopped playing, rose from his seat, and leaned over the edge. "Lenne ..."

She stared up at him, pleading for him to give up this idea and come back down when she suddenly heard something in the hall and looked over her shoulder with an anxious gasp.

Footsteps ... The same thundering footsteps of the Bevelle guards that had chased them through those endless halls were coming. Shuyin dropped all of his plans with Vegnagun and jumped over the side of the large machina weapon's head to slide down a long horn and run to her. They collided in each other's arms, and as he embraced her, he could feel her tremble with fear.

The overhead floodlights came on in the room, and the warrior monks entered, raising their rifles. They offered no warning this time.

Shuyin glared at them, fully willing to shield her from those bullets with his own body if necessary. But when he faced her with determination, she sadly averted her gaze. That look ... When she looked away ... That was when he knew. His eyes opened in recognition of her disappointment. He had no sword, and she had no aeons. They were trapped, and not even his death could save her. A tear rolled down her cheek, and she tried to smile, but Shuyin felt he had completely and utterly failed her.

The guns fired, one after another. Bullets ripped through their bodies without mercy. Lenne was the last thought on Shuyin's mind as he fell to the cold, hard floor. His watertight lungs were unable to withstand the multiple puncture wounds that stole his breath away. He felt cold ... so cold, as his heart raced irregularly, then slowed and struggled. He whispered her name and reached toward her, but she wasn't even close enough to touch. Lenne shed one final tear, but then her fingers relaxed, and she sighed her last breath. Shuyin had so many things he wanted to say to her. Instead, he was forced to watch her die. And it was his fault … all his fault. He had destroyed the only person worth saving. He hated himself. He hated everything that led to this—Bevelle, Yevon, Zanarkand ... _everything_. So much senseless death and destruction ... None of them deserved to live if Lenne had to die, not even himself.

The monks approached with caution as his stubborn lungs and heart fought to hold onto life. But as they tugged on his body and turned him over, his vision darkened, his limbs became numb, and his hearing faded. Everything faded into nothing.

))((

Zen crept close to the door where he heard the execution squad fire their shots. He saw the bodies of the couple being examined for confirmation of their deaths. The ronso had to stop himself from charging forward and ripping every gunman limb from limb. But when they began discussing disposal of the bodies, Zen turned and ran back in the direction he came. He ran out of the Bevelle dungeons and out of the temple before stopping to catch his breath. His heaving chest didn't hurt half as much as his grieving heart, but he removed the small sphere from his pouch and turned it over in his large hand. It wasn't much, but it was the only evidence he had of what had happened to them. The Bevelle rescue mission had failed. It was time to return home ... if there was anything left of it.

))((

Yu Yevon, his daughter, and his son-in-law approached the ronso village in Mount Gagazet, where their black dragon aeon faithfully guarded the entrance. Yevon was as surprised as his daughter to see how the boy's spirit manifested back into reality. But the normally regal, stern man now appeared pale, gaunt, and unwell. But he bore a strange look of determination all the same. After bowing before the black dragon, he gave its smooth black scales an appreciative stroke. "We are eternally thankful for your service and protection," he told Bahamut, then waited for him to step aside so he could enter and find Elder Kinan.

He listened to the elder ronso's report on what had passed since Zanarkand's refugees took shelter among the beast-folk, and thanked him multiple times for sharing this burden as friends and allies. "You have sacrificed your own safety for our sake, my friend, but I cannot ask you to continue to put yourself in harm's way. I would speak with my people and take them home now."

"Zanarkand is defenseless. Not safe," Elder Kinana disagreed.

"I've come across an ancient spell that will protect Zanarkand and its people … and all of Spira. Bevelle must be taught a lesson so that this never happens again."

"Ronso here if Zanarkand tribe needs to stay or come back again." Having made his final offer, the elder himself led the high summoner into the hidden caverns to reunite him with his refugees.

Yevon scanned each face in the huddled clusters of refugees as they gathered in one large group. They were tired, hungry, cold, and frightened. Misery was a horrible way to live. "Citizens of Zanarkand," he addressed them with gravity. "Words cannot express what we have been through in the past few days, first escaping death from the attack upon our fair city, and then, for some of you, escaping death again at the hands of Bevelle's machina in the grasslands. It would appear the Founders have instructed Bevelle to annihilate us."

He waited for the whispers and murmurs to die down a little before continuing. "Ronso scouts report that their army is camped at the base of these mountains and ready to march on Zanarkand again—to finish what they started. I beg of you, brave people of Zanarkand, come. Come outside and look upon your city as it stands now, but remember it the way it used to be. Recall every precious moment that they stole from you so that we will have the fortitude to rebuild once the threat of Bevelle is gone."

Yevon opened his arms and gestured to the cavern entrance. The refugees willingly filed out of the cavern, past the vigilant ronso, and followed their leader back along the mountain pass to gaze down at the city they once called home. It was an emotional moment for everyone, including the black dragon that watched their backs every step of the way.

The high summoner watched Bahamut as he blinked tears from his golden eyes. He knew that though he had the size and strength of ten ronso now, the Fayth's heart was still that of a small boy. Watching the dragon's sorrow only made Yevon more resolute. Turning aside, he looked to his daughter and son-in-law. "Do you still have the terms of surrender?"

"Yes, father." Yunalesca held up a scroll that they updated in the temple after she reported to him about what happened in the battle.

"Then you know what you must do." He turned his attention to Zaon. "Take her and Bahamut to the ronso village. Await my cue. When it is safe, the three of you must approach Bevelle. Do not negotiate. Hand them our terms, and they will either accept them or face the consequences."

Yunalesca nodded in tearful agreement and hugged her father. Zaon did the same, then tapped Bahamut to follow them up the steep path toward the ronso village. Yunalesca shook her head at the idea and dismissed the aeon instead. Bahamut was reluctant to fade back into the realm of magic when he was needed in the real world, and he roared in protest. But he had no choice. He could only obey.

))((

The boy's spirit returned to his tomb. Sitting up separate from his body, Bahamut looked around the empty cavern and gazed down at his ghostly arms and hands. A sense of dread washed over him at having been banished during such a vulnerable outing for the Zanarkand's last survivors. What was Yunalesca thinking? If Bevelle was camped at the foot of the mountain, preparing for another attack, those people still needed him! Leaving his body behind, forever sealed in the stone, the boy's spirit ran out of the cavern.

Time and space are different for spirits. And before Bahamut could blink, he was out of the village and down the mountain slope at Yevon's gathering. He felt a little dizzy from being able to fly like that, but he supposed he'd get used to it with practice.

With his daughter and her guardian on their way, the high summoner addressed his people once more. "I promised I would protect you to the utmost of my ability, and I shall keep that promise to you now. I must create a new aeon to defend Zanarkand," he informed them. "It will be the most powerful aeon ever created, and it will serve as a living armor for me, so that I may fight Bevelle's army alone."

A murmur went up among the crowd. One man against an entire army?

"I am willing to sacrifice myself to give you this new aeon. But I need your help!" The man looked as if he were about to become overwhelmed with emotion as he summoned his magical staff. "Those among you willing to dedicate your lives to the defense of Zanarkand show me your faith! Kneel, and send me your prayers! Sing! Sing the praises and memories of your home, family, friends! Mourn for what Bevelle has so brutally taken from you!"

Bahamut suddenly realized what the high summoner intended, and his fear for the refugees being attacked by Bevelle shifted toward their charismatic leader. "No! Stop!" he yelled at the crowd, but none heard him. "Don't listen to him! He's going to turn you into Fayth!"

One-by-one the survivors of the city knelt before the high summoner and prayed. They prayed that he would be of strong courage for his sacrifice. They prayed he would protect them, that Bevelle would be punished, and for the safety of their lost loved ones. They sang a traditional song in defiance of the crimes committed against them. And as they sang and prayed, Yevon cast his sleep spells giving their weary hearts and minds peace.

"Wake up!" The boy's spirit ran toward the people and tried to shake them back into consciousness, but his ethereal hands passed right through them. "He's not telling you the whole story! You're going to die!" He turned on Yevon. "You can't do this to them! I'm their guardian! Lady Yunalesca, please summon me back!"

"Sleep and give me your dreams, so that I may save our city," Yevon spoke in soothing, sorrow-filled tones. "Lend me your souls to save Zanarkand, and I will give you eternal life. Give me your pain, your anger, and your hate, so that I can punish Bevelle for what it has done to us." People began to slump from their kneeling positions to lying on the ground, and the high summoner began to dance with a spell so rare and powerful that few people in all of Spira knew that it existed. And even fewer were capable of performing it. As the citizens of Zanarkand slept, they became imbued with mysterious, ancient magic. Their song continued from a realm beyond reality as their living bodies were lifted in glyphs and encased in stone, sealing their fate toward one, and only one, permanently fused purpose. Then, Yevon's powerful spell lifted the stone and secured it with magical seals into the wall of the mountain behind him.

With a cry of anguish and anger, Bahamut threw himself at Yevon and grabbed his arms and the wand, attempting to disrupt the casting. But once again, he found himself passing through his target instead of interfering with it. He was helpless in this form, even more helpless than he had been alive.

With the last of Zanarkand's survivors transformed into Fayth, Yevon began a new dance. As his body rose in the air to start its own transformation, his long, black hair was loosed with waves of a magical wind, and his entire body blackened with the collective desire for revenge on Bevelle. His lavender eyes glowed brightly, and the tendrils of hair became snake-like tentacles full of venom. Finally, the rest of his body twisted and condensed into a mass of raw anger until it was no longer even remotely human. His eyes, the windows to his soul, transformed into a glowing glyph upon his new form to seal his unholy magic upon himself, forever. Then, the high summoner used his rare magic to draw upon the souls of the Fayth, using their energy to create a massive shell as hard as the mountain itself.

As Yu Yevon's new aeon form slid into his new aeon armor, the wall of the Fayth began to glow with powerful magic. Below the mountain, an eternal gloom enveloped and settled over the remains of Zanarkand. The waters blackened, the standing ruins faded, and pyreflies began to rise all around. The city was now officially dead, but a new, ultimate aeon—destruction incarnate—flew toward the mountain pass.

Bahamut stared at the wall of the Fayth in horror but felt helpless to do anything but watch the new aeon go.

))((

Within the heights of the mountain pass, Zen raced around the Bevelle army as it began its hike from the grasslands. He had been running and skirting that army all night, so he was breathless by the time he arrived in his village. But when he barged into Elder Kinan's cavern, he was surprised to see Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon among the other ronso elders gathered for an emergency meeting. All of the ronso glared at him for such bold rudeness, and at any other time, that kind of intrusion would have been deserving of chastisement for disrespect. But this time, he gritted his teeth in an angry snarl and offered the sphere from his pouch to his uncle. "Summoner Lenne and Shuyin are dead."

Elder Kinan was at a loss. "Dead? Zen and Shuyin free Summoner Lenne."

Zen shook his head in apology for his failure. "Shuyin captured. Tried to escape, but Bevelle temple guns ... " He paused in barely controlled anger. "Both dead!"

Lord Zaon was sharp enough to pick up on the disturbing news from a different angle. "The _temple_? Lenne was killed by our own temple?"

"Temple in Bevelle no longer temple of Yevon. Temple of Founders. Temple of traitors! Temple attack Zanarkand!"

Zaon exchanged a wary glance with Yunalesca. "That's how they knew about the aeons in the water gardens."

"They must have turned against my father right after he went down into the ship's hull to speak with the captain's spirit in the Via Infinito about fleeing her orbital confines set by the Founders," Yunalesca suggested.

"Did she break free?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps. Perhaps that's why the Founders took their own initiative with Zanarkand." Yunalesca stood and began to pace. "This changes everything. It leaves us no choice but to treat the temple at Bevelle as our most dangerous and immediate enemy. The demands for surrender must be made to Maester Renuta, as well as the Bevelle governors, and the Founders." She stopped before the ronso leader. "Elder Kinan, as soon as the temple is taken back into our possession, we will require some of your strongest warriors to transport the statue of the Fayth who gave his life to guard that temple in Lenne's place. Will you help us move him?"

"I will." Elder Kinan looked down at the sphere that his nephew gave him and played it to see Shuyin rattling the bars of his cage and yelling at his guards. With a sad sigh, he walked to the back of the room, opened a chest, and carefully placed it inside. "Ronso elders of future should never forget. Ronso elders should always remember what happened to Zanarkand."

His nephew interrupted again. "Bevelle army comes. Little brother of Summoner Lenne alone now. Zen guardian of Bahamut for Shuyin and Lenne."

Yunalesca cast a glance to Zaon. He gently shook his head, advising it would be better to say nothing about the boy's fate right now.

The elder ronso nodded in agreement with Zen's apology and suggestion to save what he could of the situation. "Strong winds guide you."

Zen turned to leave when his sensitive ears picked up a distant song. It was a haunting song with incomprehensible words, not the words of an ordinary song, but of a magic spell being woven from within the mountain itself. He thought he imagined it but then noticed the astonished expressions of the other ronso, too.

"Song comes from mountain. Song comes from Zanarkand." With a palpable sense of unease, Elder Kinan pushed past his nephew to go outside. Dozens of other ronso were doing the same. Elder Kinan and Zen walked, jogged, then ran across the treacherous pathways between the mountain slopes toward the ruined city. Some ronso from the village followed to see what was happening. But they all stopped in their tracks upon seeing the new shape of the world behind them.

A titan of an aeon soared over the skies of Zanarkand with a cry of anguished victory. And about a hundred shining spirits surrounded by swarms of colorful pyreflies united in a song where the survivors once looked down on their former home. The spire that led to the ancient ruins clouded over, and the entire column and wall of half-twisted human bodies began to fill with a dense concentration of glowing, magical particles being drawn from the plane of another dimension, in which they now existed. It looked like one of the pillars between the sea of clouds and the sky in the Farplane.

Zen ran all the way back to the refugee cavern and raced through the tunnels to the refugee camp. Not a single human remained, but he was more stunned to see Bahamut's entombed body in the cavern floor beneath a magical seal. Dropping onto his knees, the ronso bowed over the magical puddle of stone. A low growl rumbled deep within the ronso's throat, but then the growl escaped as a roar of rage and frustration. Three friends and an entire city lost in one day. _It was unforgivable._

Yunalesca had followed the ronso into the cavern and spoke behind him. "This boy must be laid to rest in Bevelle's temple once this ordeal is over."

The ronso spun and rose to his feet in one fluid motion. "Summoner Yunalesca murdered Bahamut!"

Yunalesca bravely stood her ground. "He volunteered to protect his people when they could not protect themselves. Now, he must help us reclaim the temple at Bevelle, or the rest of Spira could follow Zanarkand's fate."

"He was just a cub!"

"With a courageous soul and powerful magic! You have no idea how important that temple is. If we let the Founders have it, it could be the end of us all! …We need to move the boy's Fayth to Bevelle once it has surrendered, or all is lost."

Zen's pale green eyes widened in sadness and dismay at the boy's death, however peaceful he looked. While the other ronso bowed to mourn the loss of the neighboring city and its dead, Zen bowed to the lost boy and cast the only remaining Zanarkand summoner a hateful glare. Then, he drew his lance and charged out of the hidden caverns and down the mountain pass toward Bevelle's army.

Ronso returning from Yevon's final summoning of the Fayth saw where he was headed, drew their weapons, too, and followed.

))((

The army of Bevelle heard the unearthly song echoing from the mountain top and froze in curiosity and fear. What could create such a ghostly sound?

"It's a song from another world!" one of the front runners exclaimed.

"The Farplane must have been opened!"

"But, I thought they sealed it off! How could it open here?"

Zen stopped a short distance from their front line. He was only one ronso with one lance against an army of hundreds and their warships, but he shouted down at them, mourning his lost friends as if he were an army to himself. "Zanarkand is now City of the Dead! Mountain and ronso witness to their slaughter and sacrifice!"

"Bevelle never cross mountain again!" Elder Kinan roared, and his warning was echoed by dozens of ronso warriors dispersing among the peaks as the sun rose in the bleak sky.

The Fayth continued to sing behind them, and Yevon chose that moment to rise over the mountain and reveal his new aeon. The army of Bevelle, having never seen anything like it before, fled in terror. The first wave of black magic sent shock waves across the land and pulled everyone to the ground. Then it pushed them back, sending them tumbling down the mountain pass back toward the grasslands. The second wave of black magic obliterated everything in Bevelle's army, turning it into pyrefly dust. Finally, with Bevelle's army disintegrated, Yevon flew over the grasslands toward Bevelle itself.

))((

On the mountaintop of Gagazet, Lady Yunalesca turned to her husband and wept, seeing what her father had become. But after she came to terms with her grief, she squeezed the document in her fist and lifted her eyes to Zaon. Then, summoning her staff, she drew some magical glyphs in the snow. "Bahamut, it's time."

The boy was drawn away from the singing Fayth and hurled back into reality. As pyreflies solidified around his soul, shaping his massive dragon form once more, he landed with ground-shaking force.

The summoner tearfully acknowledged him and led the way down the slopes toward Bevelle for the final showdown.


	24. Chapter 24: Unfinished Business

Chapter 24: Unfinished Business

Shuyin awoke feeling nothing, which was strange because he was sure he was supposed to feel something after being shot so many times. He tried to look down at himself but saw nothing, not even his own body.

_Light ... _ Everything around him was a blur of light. Or maybe he was the blur of light. He couldn't distinguish himself from his surroundings. In this state of nothingness, he accepted the fact that he was dead but remembered that he had not died alone.

_ "Lenne?" _There was no reply. Or maybe there was, and he just couldn't hear it. If he couldn't see or feel, perhaps he couldn't hear either.

_Sadness …_ Incredibly deep sadness filled Shuyin's soul. Where was Lenne? He had to find her.

_Color ... _ The bits of color were followed by fuzzy shapes. His vision shifted, but nothing was clear. Was he underwater? Yes. Familiarity with underwater vision instinctively confirmed this. Then, without form, his soul rose from his physical body, and he was finally able to look down at himself. Had he been thrown into the sea like some common criminal, though all he wanted was to save a life and stop a war? As his field of vision broadened, he saw it was the same disrespect Bevelle had shown to those who fell on the battlefield.

_Anger …_ A mass grave like this would only compound Spira's problems with fiends. Bevelle's refusal to accept Spira's new reality would only lead to more deaths. _Idiots!_

Unable to look at his own corpse any longer, he searched the other bodies on the ocean floor and soon found her. _"Lenne?"_ he called for her soul to awaken.

Her beautiful hair floated around her pretty face, and she still looked at him with that same sad expression she wore when she died, but there was no reply. His memories of being alive were still fresh, so seeing her like that made him feel as if he couldn't breathe. Finally, he had to turn away. But why didn't she answer? Had her spirit abandoned him because he failed to protect her? Did she hate him now?

_Despair …_ Shuyin now felt nothing but sadness, anger, despair, and self-loathing. He'd let everyone he cherished slip through his careless fingers. Koji was right. He was cursed and now accountable for the deaths of his mother, his best friend, and his lover. But the angrier he became at himself and the circumstances that led to their fates, the more his vision cleared.

Shuyin's spirit circled the bodies on the ocean floor and wondered how many more bodies lay on the ocean floor, stadium, and streets of Zanarkand. Discouraged, his spirit rose through the water high into the sky over the docks. There, he spotted a massive creature, followed by a wind current thick with pyreflies, flying from the grasslands battlefield straight toward him—an aeon so big its angelic wings easily spanned a quarter of the entire city. Shuyin's shock was only slightly greater than his sense of dread. This aeon didn't feel like a guardian spirit. It was an angel of death.

As it approached Bevelle, the massive aeon cast a black magic spell that shook the ground with enough force to shatter a good portion of it and bring tidal waves crashing down on the waterfront sectors. The souls that had been drawn to this aeon from the battlefield were being absorbed into it. And it fed on their anger and fear as it crushed the city that had taken their lives.

Shuyin's spirit was also drawn in, caught in the massive whirlwind from the backdraft that scattered chunks of the city to the four winds. He felt no pain from his accidental collision, but the surge of power from contact was repulsive. The malicious intent within the magical toxin that surrounded the hard shell was so tangible that, had he not already been dead, it would have suffocated him. But unlike the other souls trailing the aeon, Shuyin struggled to break away. As much as he wanted revenge on Bevelle, he couldn't let himself become part of that monster. He had to find Lenne!

When the angry beast finally tucked its wings away and dove into the ocean, sending one final tidal wave over the city to wash away the broken remains, Shuyin's spirit fell.

_Dizzy ... _ Reality swam in confusion for a moment. Then, he was alone again. The other souls, possessed by the spirit's rage, had followed it into the water. Though he knew the aeon's massive body was nothing but a magical illusion, the hatred radiating from within that toxin felt very real. It lingered, leaving him disoriented for a moment before he remembered who he was and what he was doing. An aeon that strong could only have been summoned by Yu Yevon to punish Bevelle for what it did to Zanarkand.

_"Zanarkand ..." _Shuyin decided Lenne might have returned home, so his restless spirit left the vicinity to search for her there.

))((

Thousands of spheres bobbed on the ocean waves below. Among them were the newly collected recordings that had not survived transport from the underground cameras to the review office. Now they floated on the sea among the rest of the debris to be scattered to unknown destinations.

One sphere contained the image of a sad young woman confined in a cage. At the sound of a young man's voice on an unseen speaker, the young woman sought frantically to find the source of his communication. She warned him not to do anything stupid, but he promised to get her out. That promise was sincere, regardless of circumstance. Lenne's spirit settled within the sphere, and though she couldn't see him, she took comfort in hearing his voice that played within. Sad and lonely, she chose to stay right here with her memories of him ... forever.

))((

Bahamut, in his aeon form, obediently followed Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon across the war-torn battlefield. The boy within the dragon felt his heart plummet at the sight of all the pyreflies flying toward Bevelle behind Yevon's aeon, but many still lingered close to the ground. Two entire armies had been destroyed here. This land would forever be scarred with their suffering.

Half-way across the battlefield, Yunalesca came to a stop.

Zaon removed his helm and looked at his wife with concern. "Something troubles you."

"I can't stand it anymore," she whispered to her husband. "Thousands of souls crying out—too many to cleanse completely. Can't you feel it? I must do something for the ones who wish to rest." Absorbing the deep sadness of the lost and lingering souls, she faced her aeon. "Bahamut, if you remain present for the sending, you will be dismissed, and I may not have the energy to call you back when I am done here. Fly ahead of us to Bevelle and wait for us there."

The aeon leaped into the air and hovered for a moment as his summoner began her sending dance. But then he flew toward the city without her. He gave this consideration because it meant her sending spell could dismiss him, but it couldn't send him to the Farplane. It was probably because his soul was sealed as a Fayth. Something stronger than a sending spell would be needed to crack the magic of that seal, or his aeon could, theoretically, live forever—a fact that felt more disturbing than reassuring.

On his way into Bevelle, Bahamut saw a swarm of pyreflies racing toward the battlefield—more souls trying to reach the Farplane portal that Yunalesca was opening. But as he passed the cliffs and continued his flight, he inwardly gasped. Yevon's aeon was nowhere in sight, yet it had already razed large portions of the city to the ground. Other sections of Bevelle had disappeared beneath the floods. Bevelle looked almost like Zanarkand now. The temple was left standing, and survivors were already fleeing there for healing and protection, but the city was in shambled chaos. But the temple had shut its doors. How could they turn their backs on people in need like that? The black dragon wanted to knock down the doors to let the people in, but he had not been given that command. Instead, he flew to the high bridge and perched where he could watch the road far below, compelled to obediently await his summoner. "_Lady Yunalesca ... hurry_!"

))((

Shuyin's soul was among those fleeing from Bevelle. He recognized the black dragon that once guarded the ronso village and saw Yunalesca creating a path to the spirit plane below, but he refused to go—not yet, not without Lenne. With so many souls clustering near the portal, it was relatively easy for one stubborn soul to skirt the outer circumference of the portal. Shuyin's fortified spirit resisted the distant pull of the Farplane and flew toward the mountain pass. If both Yunalesca and the guardian dragon were leaving the ronso village, where were the refugees?

))((

When Yunalesca closed the portal, she dropped to her knees in exhaustion. Zaon helped her stand once more. After a moment of rest, he escorted her the rest of the way across the battlefield to the road leading to Bevelle. When they finally arrived in the city, Yunalesca and Zaon were both stunned at the extent of her father's destructive magic. The catastrophic sight evoked a familiar, overwhelming sense of loss, even though this city was responsible for what happened to them. But, after a moment, Yunalesca tightened her grip on the terms of surrender and moved on.

After pushing their way through the flooded and fallen debris into the growing crowd of frightened and injured people, Yunalesca and Zaon met no resistance approaching the temple. Bahamut soared down from the spire to join them, but no armed squads ran forward to banish him. And though the warrior monks attempting to keep the crowd under control aimed their guns at her, none dared to actually fire upon the daughter of Zanarkand's high summoner without the command to do so.

Bahamut hit the doors, forcing them open for the small summoner and her guardian, then his hulking form filled the large doorway behind them as they entered. Folding his arms at his chest, he stood his full height on his hind legs and glared threateningly at the unprepared guards and priests who were shocked to at Yunalesca's arrival.

"I wish to see Maester Renuta." Her commanding presence brought the great hall to a grinding halt.

"Maester Renuta is busy with emergency matters," one of the summoners informed her, with reservation.

"I will see him _now_!" Her voice echoed throughout the temple chambers. "Or this temple will go down with the rest of this city!"

There was a flurry of voices and whispers, and someone ran to the back of the temple. A few minutes later, Maester Renuta came through the anxious gathering of officials and guards. His robes rustled with an unhurried stride, and his lips pressed together in defiance of her urgency. "You wished to see me, Lady Yunalesca?" He greeted her as if nothing were amiss. "As you can see, my hands are quite full with disaster relief. So I request that you keep this visit short and to the point."

"Perhaps it would help if you opened your doors. The disaster is out there, not in here." Her eyes narrowed on the man, studying his pale, hawkish features as if he were a bloated corpse she wished she could send. "Zanarkand was destroyed in an unprovoked attack by Bevelle's warships!" she spoke loudly for all to hear. "I have since learned that our own temple was responsible, so I assume this stems from our difference of opinion on the matter of summoning aeons. You accuse us of human sacrifice to appease the Founders, yet you have murdered countless innocents for them. Our Fayth serve proudly knowing they are doing all they can to protect the living. Your victims will know only bitter despair, and it will eat away at them, causing them to seek revenge. What has happened here today is the result of your sins against Lord Yevon and the people of Zanarkand! That creature out there is the voice of every soul you have wronged. It is your punishment—your sin incarnate! _You_ created that monster!" She gave that accusation a moment to sink in.

"Traitors! All of you! I reclaim this temple in the name of Yevon—the man who taught you _ingrates _everything you know about white magic and the summoning arts! How dare you betray him like this!" Yunalesca stepped closer to Renuta, then she shoved the document her father drafted into the maester's chest. Though she lowered her volume, her tone remained firm. "I am the only one who can create another aeon of equal strength to take down the one that destroyed your city. But I will not do so until my father's terms of surrender have been met. No restrictions on magic. No more machina. And _no_ ... _more_ ... _Founders_. Spira belongs to those who live here now, not those who created her long ago and far away."

Sweating, Renuta looked at his warrior monks. One command could have her arrested and imprisoned or executed, but Renuta was weighing the truth of her words. Arresting their only defense against the monstrosity that had destroyed Bevelle wouldn't be prudent.

"Yevon has gone too far this time." He spoke in anger but took the document. "That swollen, unnatural beast was called from beyond the grave to destroy the living. This destruction is Yevon's doing – not ours."

"This _war_ was your doing. You sent most of our men and women to their graves. The rest died to make sure this never happens again. Bevelle will surrender to my father's terms, or _Your Sin_ will avenge Zanarkand again ... and again ... _and again_," she ended her threat with a whisper.

))((

As Shuyin's spirit fled toward Mt. Gagazet, he wondered if Zen escaped Bevelle's dungeons, or if he, too, had been captured and executed. He had not seen a ronso body among those on the ocean floor. So he decided to stop at the ronso village, which seemed to be in mourning. Passing through the covering over Zen's door, he saw that his friend was alive and well, but looked angry and sad. "_Zen ..." _Though he heard his own thoughts, he had no tongue to speak them.

_Form …_ Shuyin tried reaching toward his friend, and for the first time since awakening, he was able to see his own ghostly hand.

The ronso looked up from his fire pit at the strange appearance of pyreflies gathering near him. Pyreflies meant only two things—magic and fiends. Zen snatched his lance. "Show yourself!"

_"Zen, wait! It's me!"_

The ronso watched as the pyreflies coalesced into a glowing outline, but they didn't assume the typical shape of a fiend. As the fogginess became more distinct, he could see that this spirit was still human.

_Voice …_ "Please ..." Shuyin could hear himself speak. "Please, tell me you've seen Lenne."

"Shuyin?" The ronso was uneasy and unsure of what to do. Slowly, he shook his head. "Lenne died with Shuyin. Little brother now Fayth." He hung his head in shame, and a rare tear slid from his cat-like eyes down his furry, blue cheek. "Zen could not protect friends. Not even smallest one."

Shuyin's face twisted with disbelief and grief. "_What?_ Bahamut …"

"Lord Yevon and Lady Yunalesca turned Bahamut and Zanarkand tribe into Fayth. Elder Kinan say Fayth Scar makes Gagazet sacred mountain. New aeon from Zanarkand destroyed Bevelle army."

"Then … the refugees … "

Zen shook his head.

Shuyin considered what he had learned so far about the creation of a Fayth, and the same morbid fear that crept over him concerning Lenne now returned to him concerning her brother and the refugees. That aeon that collided with him and destroyed Bevelle … Shuyin's ghostly form clenched its fists and teeth before turning and racing through the door flap, where his pyreflies fell apart and faded.

))((

Maester Renuta refused to accept the terms of surrender, but a majority within the temple disagreed with him. After a brief scuffle with Bahamut, Renuta and his supporters were taken to the dungeons. Then, Yunalesca sent summoners outside to help with direct relief efforts, while she rounded up rosters of anyone left that would support Yevon's uncensored teachings.

When Yunalesca had the temple back under control enough to dismiss her aeon, Bahamut vanished from the temple and rose from his tomb in the cavern in the mountain. It would probably be a while before the ronso could move his body to Bevelle, so the boy's spirit wandered out onto the pass near the Fayth Scar overlooking the Zanarkand ruins. He still felt responsible for these people he had been told to protect. Facing the ocean under the moonlight, he saw Sin swimming near the city, looking as if it were trying to seek solace among the remains. Except for the pyreflies, however, Zanarkand was dark, cold, and dead as the night. After a few minutes, like a predator lurking in the shadows to avoid being seen, the aeon dove beneath the surface to rest.

A few minutes later, distant human voices drew Bahamut's attention toward the dark mountain pass behind him. A pair of Bevelle scouts with lanterns were coming toward him. They must have skirted the ronso village using air transport. Not seeing him, they passed right through his body. But they immediately spotted the bodies trapped in the magical seals embedded in the mountain wall.

"What, in the name of everything unholy, is that?" one asked the other, his fear at the grotesque sight written all over his face. "That's not our army, is it?"

"My guess is it's the last of Zanarkand's survivors. And it's literally oozing with magic, so it looks like the high summoner himself did this to them." The other guard shook his head, uneasy with the discovery. "Destroyed his own city just to take a shot at us. Typical of Yu Yevon's arrogance."

In a rare fit of anger, Bahamut flew at them with his fists. "You're the ones that destroyed our city! You did it! All of you!" However, he stumbled and passed right through them, unable to make physical contact.

"It's pointless to fight them. They can't see or hear you," a feminine voice nearby spoke.

But the fact that someone had spoken to him meant _someone_ could see and hear him. Bahamut turned to see a young woman sitting on a rock a short distance down the path toward the ruins. He wondered why he hadn't noticed her before, but the scouts didn't seem to see her, either.

The scouts used a memory sphere to record their discovery of the wall, then passed by the twisted bodies to head toward Zanarkand and record it, too. "This place gives me the creeps. There's nothing left of our army, and that's all we can say about it. There's not a spare part left anywhere."

Bahamut waited until their voices trailed away further down the path toward the ruins before he drew near to the spirit of the young woman to see her better in the dark. "Kaila?" He had met her only a couple of times while Lenne was dating Koji, so he was surprised to see her now. "Are you …?"

"Dead? Apparently so. I was among the survivors in the caverns—the survivors turned into Zanarkand's Fayth."

"I didn't see you in the caverns. I was in there, too … until I was turned into a Fayth to guard them." Bahamut saddened. "I tried to stop him. I tried to wake everyone up, but no one heard me."

"Only a summoner can break through the spell that surrounds a Fayth." Kaila turned her chin to face the young boy. "You should know that. You've studied summoning more than the rest of us."

Yes, he knew the conditions for praying to a Fayth. "It's just hard to remember I'm ..."

"I know," she sympathetically agreed. Kaila turned her gaze back toward the city.

"What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to see the real ruins again. I have a hard time believing everything's gone."

"With Zanarkand gone, there won't be many summoners to call on us."

Kaila sighed. "I don't think Lord Yevon meant for anyone else to summon us. He summoned us to transform himself within our seal. And now he summons us to sleep … to dream … to remember the city before it was destroyed."

"Lady Yunalesca summons me as an aeon. She wants to take me to Bevelle." Bahamut sat down beside her on the rock and looked longingly toward the ruins. He couldn't believe how dismal the place looked now, despite the sparkling magic in the fog that surrounded the city. "It looks like it's been dead for a thousand years already."

"Ah, but that's because you're looking at it through reality. Close your eyes and remember."

Bahamut closed his eyes and saw Zanarkand as it was once more. When he opened them again, that's exactly how it appeared to be. It was as if he had brought the entire city back to life just by wishing it.

Kaila smiled at his astonished expression. "It's beautiful, isn't it? I'm not sure how it works, but I think it comforts Lord Yevon to know Zanarkand is still alive in some way. Now it really is the 'City That Never Sleeps.'"

The boy was awed by how real it looked. "The sleep spell cast on the Fayth must work like the water of Lake Macalania. Memories preserved in particles of magic become an illusion."

"I guess that would explain the gaps. I went through it before coming here and noticed a few things that seemed … off."

"You went in there?"

"It only took a few minutes. It's not like I have to walk or wait for the transport schedule anymore. The illusion itself is very convincing because of the abundance of magic here. But not everyone who lived in Zanarkand died as a Fayth. Those who died by normal means and crossed over to the Farplane, or remain unsent ... we don't have their memories to fill in the gaps. So, there are places where you can tell it's just a stage prop. There's nothing real behind it. The people are like actors with a pre-written script. Somehow Yevon's spell unifies it, though. It's like one big database."

"What if we don't want to share our memories like that?"

"Well, you were created for a different purpose, so I don't know how it is for you. But the rest of us don't have a choice. Yevon summons us to sleep, dream, and remember. Then, he uses our memories to reconstruct Zanarkand. But you know what I discovered?" She giggled behind her hand in a somewhat guilty manner. "I can alter bad memories by imagining them differently."

Bahamut's eyes popped wide open. "You can change the past?"

"Well, no. Nothing we do in our dreams affects reality. It is, after all, just a dream. But remembering things differently can alter _Dream_ Zanarkand. It's really cool. Would you like to see?"

He wasn't sure he wanted to. The memories of his lost loved ones were still too fresh in mind. If he were to see them walking down recreated streets, it might hurt too much. Closing his eyes, he let the vision leave his imagination. When he opened them again, the desolation of the real Zanarkand stood before him once more. He preferred it that way for some reason. Perhaps she did, too, or she wouldn't be here, outside of the Dream.

Kaila blinked to return her vision to normal, too. But looking past his shoulder toward the mountain pass, she blinked again with surprise. "Oh my gosh! Is that Shuyin?" She hopped down from her rock.

Prompted by the mention of the name, Bahamut stared at the ghostly figure coming down the path toward them. "Shuyin!" With a big grin, the boy jumped off the rock and ran to meet him. To his surprise, the guardian was tangible enough for the boy to grab his hand. Then he remembered from his magic lessons how pyreflies stick to one another to create magic in the first place. "Shuyin! Are you a Fayth, too?"

"No," Shuyin growled. Glancing down at the boy, and then to Kaila, he strode past them to see the mural of twisted bodies fused into the mountain wall by streams of magic. "So, it's true. Zen told me everyone had been turned into a Fayth."

Kaila drew near but seemed to be resisting the urge to give him a hug. "It was the only way to save what was left of Zanarkand."

"Shuyin! My aeon form! It's a dragon! A really, really big black dragon!" The boy beamed with pride.

The blitzball player grabbed the boy's shoulders and gave him a shake. "How could you let them do that to you! How could you blindly go along whatever they said without questioning anything!"

Bahamut stepped back from the scolding. The guardian was apparently still just as angry as when he last saw him alive, going to Bevelle to free Lenne. The fact that he was here like this could only mean the mission had not been successful. The boy wanted to ask what had happened to his sister, but now he was afraid of the answer. "I wanted to help. Just like you wanted to help Lenne."

The comparison struck a painful chord in the blitzball player. Releasing the boy, he turned away from them and stared at the cold, lifeless bodies within the gruesome collage. "Then, we both failed."

Bahamut shared Shuyin's sadness. "We can still help people this way ... when we're summoned."

Kaila was wary. "Shuyin, if you're not a Fayth, then ..."

"Then what?" His gaze hardened on her.

_Unsent …_ No one dared to say it because Shuyin clearly didn't want to talk about his own dark existence, clinging to life beyond death by sheer rebellion.

"At least I'm not enslaved to a summoning spell. I knew that bastard was leaving the city wide-open by sending us out there to die, but I never guessed he'd be the one to strike the killing blow. How could he do this to his own people? I knew he couldn't be trusted! _This_ is why I asked Lenne to stay away from Bevelle. And now, I can't … I can't ..." Despair and pain replaced the anger in his expression. Running his fingers through his hair, he turned away, unable to face them or the wall anymore.

"You can't find her?" Kaila guessed, worried about him.

Shuyin lifted his chin to stare at the ghostly ruins through angry tears. "Some guardian I turned out to be."

"Maybe Lenne went to the Farplane," she softly suggested.

Shuyin froze, then faced her again. "Is that some kind of sick joke? I'm _not_ going to the Farplane. I won't rest until I find her _and_ the people who did this to her. To us—_all _of us!" Turning away, he jogged down the path toward Zanarkand once more.

"Shu?" Kaila started to follow, but the boy at her side caught her hand to stop her.

"Let him go. Something's … not right. He's got twice the amount of pyreflies we do." Bahamut felt a tremendous sense of loss in watching Shuyin leave. The blitzball player had returned to them, but he wasn't their sunny, fun-loving Shuyin anymore. How had his heart become tainted with such dark emotions? Bahamut suspected it wasn't just the fact that Shuyin was unsent. There was an aura about his friend now that truly frightened him.

))((

Shuyin headed down the road into Zanarkand but paused to take stock of the transformed, faded ruins. What was the point of trying to protect anyone or anything if it could be so easily destroyed like this? Lenne had believed in him, and he had given his best. But his best wasn't good enough. It wasn't fair. But life isn't fair, is it?

If he couldn't protect her from harm, he at least wanted to be with her. The thought of being without her, forever … He couldn't face forever without her.

"Lenne?" he called out as he jogged into the empty city. "Lenne!"

At the temple, the door was shut. Shuyin started to open it with force, but his hands passed through the handles. Drawing an uneasy breath, he walked through the structure barring his entrance and down the darkened great hall beyond it, absorbing more pyreflies as he went. "Lenne!" he cried. "Please come back to me! I'll put things right, I swear! I'll make them pay for what they did! I'll make them all pay!" He thrust a tapestry drape blocking his path out of his way, and this time, it moved as if a stiff breeze blew through the ruins.

The two scouts from Bevelle looked up as Shuyin entered the second chamber. They had heard him shouting and were prepared to take on an angry Zanarkand refugee. But when he came into view, and they saw how transparent he was, they immediately raised their guns. "Fiend!"

Shuyin had no time to process the threat before bullets tore through his chest _again_. Closing his eyes, he expected to feel the familiar pain of death. But this time, he felt nothing. A few pyreflies fluttered away, nothing more. He looked down at himself, stunned for a moment, but then looked back at the men who had tried to kill him. As his scowl darkened, both gunmen realized the difference between a fiend and a ghost is that material weapons can't kill spirits that haven't fully materialized yet.

The blitzball player charged the man that called him a fiend. Instead of being able to grab onto him, however, he found himself _inside_ of him. The man cried out in protest and grasped his head, but Shuyin hung on tenaciously. Using borrowed hands, Shuyin raised the gun toward the scout's partner and fired it. The other scout stared in shock at the friend who shot him, then fell dead at Shuyin's feet.

Shuyin felt no remorse whatsoever. This man had tried to kill him. Now, he had one less Bevelle loyalist to deal with. Looking down at his hands, the hands of a stranger, Shuyin didn't know how he gained this kind of magic, but he realized what he was capable of doing with it.

))((

A few days later, a tall, broad-shouldered man with tanned skin, light brown eyes, and auburn hair entered the Bevelle temple and went straight to Maester Renuta's office door. "My name is Tsuran. I've returned from Zanarkand, and I'm ready to debrief on the army's disappearance. Maester Renuta should be expecting me."

"Oh, you must have left before Lady Yunalesca arrested him," the summoner outside of the office told him. "He's awaiting execution for treason. You should report to Lady Yunalesca if you have any Zanarkand information. She has taken over temple operations to appoint an entirely new, ordained staff to get us back on track with the teachings of Yevon." The summoner looked worried. "She says it's the only way to prevent that ... that ... _thing_ ... from coming back."

Tsuran decided Yunalesca could wait. "Then, can you tell me where to find some kind of roster for the names of the guards responsible for the execution of the summoner and blitzball player from Zanarkand? The ones shot near Vegnagun."

"Well, we didn't really have a roster for that execution because it happened after they tried to escape. However, the report on file in the maester's office probably has a list of witnesses. Did they actually do something to Vegnagun?"

"Not yet." Tsuran offered a curt smile of gratitude. "I'll need that report to discuss their executions with Lady Yunalesca. She won't be happy to hear that one of her summoners was gunned down in cold blood by her own monks." When the summoner stepped aside with uncertainty, Tsuran went into the maester's office and scrounged around in the files until he found what he was looking for. Then, he let himself out of the office and addressed the summoner one more time. "Does your speaker system work?"

"Yes. The attack downed most of the city's utilities, but we're on back-up generators here. Most of our summoners are out taking care of the wounded within the city to keep them from coming into the temple since our situation is rather ... unorganized ... while Lady Yunalesca hunts down the rest of the traitors."

"Could you give these people a call for me, please? Tell them to come to the lower level of the temple so we can further investigate this execution. Thank you." Tsuran handed him the list of names, tipped his hat, and walked away with confidence. He didn't even wait to hear the names being read over the loudspeaker before returning to the great hall and heading for the lift.

This time, Shuyin browsed the thoughts of his host body to find out how to operate the thing, so he knew which switch would make it go in the direction he needed. This time, he knew his way through the maze of tunnels leading underground to the jails, and he knew exactly how to check a sphere monitoring station to locate and lower the prisoner he needed to see. When he found the maester's cage, he approached with the calm persona of the scout he possessed. "My report on Zanarkand is ready, Maester Renuta. Would you like to hear it?"

"Report? Do you think I give a damn about your report when I'm being confined in here?" The maester's comb-over was in disarray, and his face flushed with sweat and frustration.

"Not a lot of fun being strung up like that, is it, sir?" Tsuran smiled.

Renuta didn't know what to think of the scout's comment. "Don't take that tone with me. I'm still your superior. Where's Paomar?"

"He's dead, sir. Everyone's dead. The Bevelle army vanished without a trace. And Zanarkand is in ruins, completely drained of all life—literally. The remaining citizens gave up their souls to become Fayth so that Yevon could create the aeon that attacked this city."

Renuta was thoughtful for a moment, then he leaned close to the bars of his cage and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I can make it worth your while if you help me get out of here. I have connections with the ambassador of the Founders' headquarters up on the cliffs of Mushroom Rock Road. Just escort me there, and they'll work with you on a settlement. Eh?"

Tsuran's brows drew together, and he whispered back. "What kind of connections?"

"The ambassador of the Founders asked me to take up this position so we could fill the temple with … friendly faces."

"You mean _spies_."

The maester's eyes narrowed at the scout's bold correction. "We decided to rid Spira of Yu Yevon by hiding under his own wing. And it worked—beautifully—until that coeurl Yunalesca showed up with her pet monster. Ambassador Guregohe needs to be told that Bevelle was struck, and _she's_ taken over."

"Sounds like this plan's been in progress for a while."

"Long enough." Renuta chuckled.

"Which one of you is responsible for the orders to attack Zanarkand?"

"Guregohe. I only employed Bevelle's defense forces to the task. Yevon entered the Via Infinito and tried to convince the ship's captain to flee the Founders. They cannot afford to lose control of this ship! So, they're done negotiating with the necromancers."

Tsuran's brows rose with doubt. "A whole city of necromancers? What about the fans at the blitzball tournament in the arena? Were they necromancers? What about that player we killed? Was he a necromancer, too?"

The master frowned. "He was a thief! And Vegnagun is too unstable to be tampered with, even by our own engineers."

"He was trying to help his girl escape." Tsuran came closer to the bars. "And she did nothing to deserve imprisonment or death."

"She was a necromancer! She was also Yevon's chosen Fayth for this temple," he confessed with distaste. "Yevon's aeons, his _familiars_, are nothing but demonic spies."

Tsuran snatched the maester's robes and jerked him forward until his face slammed against the bars. "That summoner was not a demon or a spy, you paranoid excuse for a priest."

The maester began to sweat profusely at the chilling tone and look in the scout's eyes. "She was trying to steal Vegnagun with him!"

"She was trying to talk me out of it, but you had her shot anyway!" Shuyin yelled over his host's voice.

The maester's eyes widened, and his fat jowls trembled as a single pyrefly floated away from Tsuran's wrist. He was in the grip of an unsent. "_You_?"

Tsuran smiled at the recognition, released Renuta's robes, and backed away. Raising the nose of his rifle between the maester's eyes, he fired, short range. Then he looked at the spheres that recorded the whole thing, before walking away without a care in the world about getting arrested.

Jogging toward the lift, Tsuran heard the alarms go off. When he reached the circuit pathways, members of the firing squad intercepted him.

"Stop! You're under arrest!"

Tsuran greeted them with bullets and pushed them over the edge to the long drop below. A few of their rounds struck him, too, but it wasn't enough to make Shuyin let go. He rode the lift back to the top and headed toward the exit.

"There! He's the one!" the summoner he spoke to earlier pointed him out.

Four warrior monks rushed Tsuran.

He ran in a mild effort to escape but knew it was futile. Tsuran was shot in the back and stumbled forward, so Shuyin's spirit rose from his host's dying body and marched toward his pursuers.

All four warrior monks stopped their tracks and gaped at the glowing figure full of pyreflies heading straight for them. "Wh-what is that?" one asked. "Is it a fiend?"

They raised their guns to shoot his sparse composition, but Shuyin had already selected his next host. The warrior monk he possessed fought to remain in control of himself for a few minutes, but then obediently ran. The others were puzzled and reluctant to shoot their own comrade, but eventually, they brought him down with a leg wound. Determined, Shuyin took a third host, until the same thing happened. There were plenty of spectators who witnessed the strange homicidal behavior of the warrior monks, but this time no one was left to stop the final host from escaping.


	25. Chapter 25: Spirit of Despair

Chapter 25: Spirit of Despair

Shuyin ran from Bevelle most of the way to Mushroom Rock Road, stopping to rest only after the sun set. The former blitzball player was frustrated this body he possessed was not as capable of the speed or endurance he was used to, and though he felt no hunger himself, he could tell his host needed food and water. On top of that, he was nearsighted. It made Shuyin wonder how the warrior monk managed to aim a gun.

On his second day of travel, he stopped on the outskirts of Moonflow, the city built on high-rise bridges over a river of the same name. Hot and exhausted, he knelt by the embankment to quench his thirst and splash some cold water on his face. In the ripples, he was stunned to see his reflection for the first time since his death. It was strange to see someone else looking back at him with a face so different from his own.

His new host was a man of medium stature, medium skin tone, and medium-length mouse-brown hair that he wore tied back while on duty. His eyes were small and dark like his hair. Touching his cheeks, he felt a light beard scruff that had been neglected for a couple of days. Turning away from his reflection, Shuyin began browsing the surface thoughts of his host's mind to find out more. His name was Sanpul, and he was among those who had their sights on Zanarkand's destruction. He had sided with the Founders during the temple's infiltration, but a previous injury kept him from joining the battle in the grasslands. Shuyin almost immediately hated him, but then decided it was justice to use him for this purpose.

When Shuyin finally reached the headquarters of the Founders on Mushroom Rock Road, he used Sanpul's voice to request an audience with Ambassador Guregohe. He was the man officially in charge of mediation between their former homeworld, Earth, and the governing bodies in each of the cities and towns on the colony space ship. Shuyin could have stopped in at the Founders' representative's office while he was in Bevelle, but with the chaos during his escape, he decided it was best to tackle those on his black-ball list in order of offense. The warrior monks who hunted him and Lenne were now dead somewhere beneath the temple. Maester Renuta, who ordered their execution, was now rotting in his cage. Ambassador Guregohe, who ordered the attack on Zanarkand, was next. Perhaps Shuyin would even hunt down the peon who dared to capture Lenne, or the Bevelle warriors who flew the airships over the stadium. Eventually, he would also take on Lady Yunalesca and Lord Yevon for what they did to Bahamut, Kaila, and everyone else. But first, he would have to figure out how to defeat them without being sent. Perhaps Vegnagun could help with that. He didn't care what else he destroyed now as long as those who made them suffer also suffered. In the lobby, Sanpul sat down and closed his eyes to rest while Shuyin plotted his course of revenge.

After Shuyin was invited into the ambassador's office, he stared hard at the man responsible for planting the seed that blossomed into everyone else's doom. Guregohe had short white hair, a gray mustache, and gray eyes. Instead of wearing robes, like most officials in Spira's political arena, he wore a military uniform more akin to the various soldier factions he commanded—uniforms like the Bevelle warriors who claimed victory after their machina won the battle for them. If there was such a thing as a Founders' Empire here on Spira, the ambassador served as the behind-the-scenes emperor. He was the one who made sure each of the cities governing assemblies behaved. And he reported Spira's progress and news back to Earth.

Guregohe shook hands with Sanpul. "My junior staff counsel says you claim to have urgent news concerning your first-hand surveillance of the Zanarkand ruins."

"The city has been completely destroyed," Sanpul reported. He didn't see anything of the city's destruction to be able to make that claim, but he was not in control of his own body, and there was nothing he could do to counter the strong magic that had taken over his mind. "The only known survivors are Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon."

"Excellent!" The ambassador laughed. "That will teach the rest of Spira not to be snide about the Founders' mandates. Have a seat. What was your name again?" Guregohe took his seat behind his desk and offered his guest the chair facing him on the other side.

"Sanpul." Still tired from his run, the warrior monk accepted the seat.

"So, tell me all about it. What did you see in Zanarkand?"

Sanpul's brows rose in indecision. "Do you want details about how Yu Yevon turned himself into an aeon big enough to wipe out all of Bevelle's army and half of their city, too? Or do you mean the details that involve pulling children out of the water from the bottom of a collapsed stadium, only to discover they've drowned in your arms?"

The ambassador's smile fell at the barbed tone of the response. "You were present during the attack?"

"I was enjoying the blitzball tournament."

Guregohe sighed. "Well, I'm sorry to hear you got caught in the cross-fire, but I hope you understand why Bevelle couldn't warn its citizens to stay home. If news leaked to Zanarkand, they might have been better prepared to fight back."

"Oh, absolutely. Best to stab them in the back while they're playing games, right? Winning is what matters in war, and war is not a game," Sanpul added.

The ambassador didn't know whether to be offended or amused at the messenger's bluntness. Apparently, Guregohe decided to ignore the odd tone and comments for the sake of the alliance with Bevelle. Instead, he leaned forward with interest. "Tell me more about this aeon. Yu Yevon turned himself into one of those demons and attacked the army _and_ the city? I wondered why communications with Bevelle suddenly stopped. How bad is it?"

"Bevelle is a disaster, but Lady Yunalesca has control of the temple once more. She delivered Yevon's terms of surrender to Maester Renuta, and he refused to cooperate, so he was executed." Sanpul hid a secret smile to himself. "She's hunting down the other spies, so I have no doubt she'll be coming here soon. She'll try to get rid of the Founders next. That is among Yevon's terms of surrender." His voice was calm. His face showed no emotion as he paused and shifted forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees. "Tell me something, sir. If someone threatened to destroy Spira the same way Zanarkand was destroyed, would that be treason?"

Guregohe frowned at the weight of what was happening in Bevelle and tried to read the other man's motive in asking such a thing. "Treason is a grave accusation."

"Was Zanarkand guilty of treason?"

"Yevon declared Zanarkand an independent city. He tried to take control of the ship. And now you say his daughter demands that the Founders leave. Is that their next goal: destroy Spira?"

"No. I thought it was yours."

"Well. That _would_ be treason, wouldn't it." The ambassador began to look like an animal wary of being backed into a corner. "Why would I want to destroy Spira?"

"For the same reason you attacked Zanarkand—to destroy all the summoners and aeons, to cleanse the ship of all alien magic and life. Otherwise, you could have just arrested Yevon and tried him for treason … right?"

"Zanarkand needed cleansing because Yevon was a dangerous man spreading dangerous ideas. His necromancy and black magic infected the city like a virus. Even children were practicing it. And it wasn't enough to infect one of the biggest cities on Spira. His appetite for power was growing. He set up temples for training summoners in Bevelle, Besaid City, and Kilika Port. Now he's even got temples in remote places like Macalania and Baaj."

"Don't those places need help sending their dead?"

"We don't need magic to deal with the dead. Magic is what keeps them here when they aren't wanted." Guregohe tapped his desk with a stiff forefinger to emphasize that point. "Yevon used magic to summon an army of demons. And according to his own temple in Bevelle, those things were created from living, human sacrifices. Allowing that sort of thing to continue unchecked is criminal. And this ship has enough problems with dead things walking around because of that blasted plane of magic at its core. We don't need more magic, and we cannot sit idle while he kills members of his cult to create those undead monstrosities to use on whoever disagrees with his necromantic practices."

Guregohe shook his head with disgust. "The man was acting as if he were a god. People were beginning to _believe_ he was a god. If Spira is to have gods, it will be the gods of the people who created her, not some egocentric lunatic who's learned alien tricks for manipulating life and death. This ship was meant to be a haven for the good people of Earth, a model for surviving somewhere else in the universe. If we give ourselves over to alien influences, we will find ourselves right back under their thumbs again. Spira was meant to preserve humanity's history and environment. But allowing aliens on board perverted it. Ever since alien magic was introduced to the ship, it has been one headache after another trying to keep the colony sustainable."

"Alien magic saved us from certain death, and this ship is now self-sustaining."

The ambassador frowned. "But now the dead walk the land and plague the living. To allow Yevon's cult free access to the Farplane would be suicide for the rest of us. And he had the audacity to command us to return to Earth when he's contributing to this problem by summoning the dead? I think not! I was born and raised on this ship, and my ancestors helped build it. I'm not going to let some cult leader turn this colony into a ghost ship. This is my home, and I'm not budging."

"The people of Zanarkand could have said the same thing if anyone bothered to ask." Sanpul looked up from studying a ring he was unused to seeing on his finger—a golden wedding band. He wondered if his wife had survived Yevon's attack on Bevelle or if she was just another casualty in this war … like Lenne. "My girlfriend was one of the summoners you ordered Bevelle to destroy."

Tension settled between the two men as the ambassador took note of the slant taking shape in this odd conversation.

A knock at the door interrupted.

"Enter," Guregohe responded.

One of the junior aides came into the office. "Sorry to disturb you, sir, but an urgent message just came from Bevelle."

Guregohe raised a hand to halt the news from being told in the presence of the previous messenger. Seemingly glad for the excuse to leave Shuyin's company, the commander followed the junior officer outside the room and closed the door to speak privately.

Shuyin looked again at the wedding ring and considered searching Sanpul's mind to see if he had kids, but decided against it. Instead, he opened his memories of all the children he signed autographs for on paper scraps, programs, and blitzballs. All of those children, including Bahamut, were lost. Sanpul groaned in discontent and tried again to pull free from the spirit within as he was forced to acknowledge their smiling faces.

))((

"What is it?" Guregohe asked his aide.

"We finally got a communication from Bevelle. They were attacked several days ago by a giant aeon that hit them with magical quakes, tidal waves, and typhoon-strength winds. The city is operating on emergency resources right now. It sounds pretty bad, but … there's something else. One of our agents said Renuta sent two scouts to Zanarkand, and only one returned. Supposedly, he went insane and killed Maester Renuta and about a dozen other warrior monks in the temple. Our agent said that when the scout was killed to prevent his escape, something even weirder happened."

Guregohe put his personal definition of _weirder_ on hold. "Go on."

"Witnesses said something came out of him."

"Pyreflies?" he asked with suspicion.

"They said it looked like the magic that surrounds fiends, but it wasn't a fiend. And they don't think it was the scout's spirit because it didn't act like him. They said it went into one of the other warrior monks and possessed him, but when they tried to stop it, it kept taking new bodies. Witnesses say the last monk it possessed got away." The junior officer glanced at the closed office door.

Guregohe glanced at the door, too, and recalled Sanpul's strange comments about saving drowning children and losing his girlfriend. "Thank you. If this messenger from Bevelle is possessed by an unsent spirit, we need to prevent it from taking any more bodies before we attempt to confront it."

"Well, summoners are the experts when dealing with unsent spirits."

"Out of the question. Especially now that Yunalesca has reclaimed the temple in Bevelle. This is a fine example of the very thing we're trying to prevent by getting rid of the magic these undead things feed on."

"Forgive me for being contrary, sir, but I really think this case needs a summoner. Since it can hide inside people and control them, you can't take a sword to it without killing the host. That is … if the host is still alive. A summoner might be able to defeat the dead without losing the living in the process. My cousin happens to be a summoner at the Djose temple, sir. It's a disgrace to the entire family, I know, but he always was a bit of an odd sort," the junior aide muttered. "Still, I think he would know more about this sort of thing than us, and we can trust him to keep mum about it. And Djose is just down the road, closer than Bevelle."

The ambassador tapped his chin with consideration, then sighed in frustration. "Very well. Fetch your cousin from Djose, but make sure he agrees to tell no one. Be quick about it, too. I don't know how much longer I can detain this guy. We should probably try to sedate him, and I want something waiting for him out here in case he tries to leave."

"Yes, sir." The junior aide hurried on his way to set his tasks in motion.

Guregohe situated his uniform, drew a breath, and entered his office once more. Knowing now that he was speaking to the dead, he sat back down at his desk. "Sorry about that. Where were we?"

"My girlfriend died because of you," Sanpul flatly stated with a cold glare.

If the ambassador had any doubts about this being the same warrior monk in the report, he was convinced now. "Unfortunately, all of Zanarkand needed to be cleansed. We cannot allow necromancers and black magic users to populate and take control of Spira."

"Lenne used white magic to heal people. She prevented wandering souls from festering into fiends by sending them." Sanpul rose from his chair. "You complain about Yevon playing god, but when you destroyed Zanarkand, you played god, too. You didn't like how your creation turned out, so you think you can just flood it and start over. But Zanarkand didn't deserve _your_ judgment because of _your_ fear and hatred of magic. If you attempt to cleanse the ship's magic, you condemn the world that exists on it."

Guregohe met the messenger's grim expression with a grim expression of his own. "Not if I can take it safely home to spare those who deserve a second chance."

Sanpul leaned forward over the desk, nose-to-nose with the ambassador, and spoke with a very different, low, menacing tone. "And since you see yourself as the god of Spira, I suppose you are the one who decides who gets second chances? What about me? I'm not a summoner or an alien. Do I deserve a second chance?"

"Only the living have the right to change their destiny," the ambassador tersely answered.

The warrior monk almost laughed. "But, I died because _you_ decided to cleanse Zanarkand." The unsent spirit's amusement that he had been discovered faded quickly, though. "You stole that right from me!" Reaching within himself, he threw his rage toward the ambassador.

The collapse of the stadium, the inferno of the sinking city, the battle on the grasslands, the chase and execution by the firing squad, the pain and frustration of watching Lenne die, finding their corpses on the bottom of the ocean … The ambassador tried to fight it, but the magical despair flooded his mind disorienting him before he could flee.

))((

Reliving the same distress as he invoked it, Shuyin gritted his teeth, raised Sanpul's gun, and fired point-blank at the ambassador's skull. "This time, I'm playing to win, no matter what. … And this discussion is over."

But opening the door to leave, he suddenly found himself facing multiple armed guards. Rather than attempting to fight his way out, Shuyin slipped out of Sanpul's body, letting the man drop to his knees. As an unsent spirit, he rose above the armed guards to seek a new host at the back of the crowd. As soon as his target cried out in surprise at the force of the possession, however, one of the other guards clamped a rag soaked in sleep potion over his mouth and nose. The host's body was immediately overcome by the magical vapors, and since Shuyin failed to free himself before his victim lost consciousness, he succumbed to them too.

))((

The junior aide pointed to the drugged guard on the floor. "Take him to the bunker at the bottom of the cliff. Isolate him as much as possible, but keep him under strict surveillance. And keep him drugged with the sleep potion until our consultant can arrive to deal with him! Hurry!"

He looked into the ambassador's office and saw the man's body slumped over his desk. Having heard the gunshot, he feared the worst and could see the blood puddle from where he stood. Turning back around, he glowered at the warrior monk caught in the clutches of the Founders' guards. Sanpul looked terrified at what he'd just been through.

"What do we do with him?" one of the guards asked.

The junior aide took one more look at the ghastly sight of their fallen leader. What else could he do? "Arrest him for the ambassador's assassination."

Sanpul gasped at the charges. "It wasn't me! He made me do it! I couldn't stop him!"

The junior aide was disturbed at the monk's reaction but nodded in understanding. "I have to follow procedure, but I will stand witness for you at your trial. Meanwhile, I must notify Bevelle. I think we've caught their vengeful spirit. Whether we can stop its killing spree, however, is another matter." He said a prayer for his cousin as the guards whisked away the assassin. Then, he went in search of the ambassador's second in command.

))((

When Midoriha received the distress call from his cousin at the Founders' complex, he advised using magic to sedate the spirit and get it to an isolated location immediately. Then, he promised he would be there right away, assuring him that he had done many sendings before. But he'd never done any sending quite like this. An unsent within a living person?

After rounding up his trusted guardians via com sphere and telling them to meet him outside of Djose, he went straight to the temple library and grabbed a handful of reference books on advanced spirit magic. Running to his hovercar, he dumped his supplies in the seat, but then remembered he needed his staff as well. He was about to lock his door when he also remembered he needed to look the part. He'd been fussed at by one of the maesters for not wearing appropriate attire at the last sending – said it made the temple look bad. So, he grabbed his Yevonite robes and stuck his arms through the sleeves while running back to the hovercar. "Damn it! I forgot to lock the door," he told his friend, giving him a dubious glance. "Okay, nevermind." He waved it off. "This is urgent. And it may be our chance to prove to the Founders that we're here to help."

Pushing up his glasses, he started the engine and sped down the sea-side road toward the canyon of rocks that looked like brown mushrooms. As the wind whipped his somewhat-gathered, straw-colored hair into his face, he glanced once more to his faithful guardians. "Grab those books and look up anything you can on possessions and exorcisms."

"Exorcisms? You're joking, right?"

"It's a stretch, I know, but I think that's what we're dealing with this time. My cousin said they have an unsent soul trapped in a living host."

His friend shrugged. "Kill the host."

Midoriha gave him a tight-lipped frown as his hair blew into his face with the wind. "Yes, that's exactly what I was going to suggest, but I was hoping for a less moronic idea." He spat a loose strand of hair from his mouth and tried to keep his mind on the road.

His guardians didn't find much information on the subject, but what they did find they read aloud to him as he drove. When they arrived at the isolated cavern, the wind-blown, disarrayed summoner pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose and examined the sleeping guard. "Was he violent?" he asked the commander of the unit.

"He killed the ambassador."

Midoriha was appalled. "I'm so sorry."

"He also killed the maester of the Bevelle temple and several warrior monks there."

"Very select victims ..." Midoriha gave that some thought. Then, he set about cleansing the newly emptied bunker with holy water and placed wards around the walls, weaving a net of magical glyphs between the wards to keep the dangerous spirit trapped within. When he was finished, he attempted to smooth his stringy strands of hair back into place with the rest of his loose ponytail and sighed with nervous satisfaction at the stage he had set. Then, he faced his guardians and the armed guards standing over their drugged comrade. "I should give you fair warning. I will attempt to send him first. But if I cannot make him release the body, there may be nothing we can do to save the man he has possessed."

"You'd ... kill him?" the commander of the unit asked.

"This spirit is obviously malicious. We must do all that we can to prevent it from taking more bodies or escaping, even if it means denying him the life of his host. I'm sorry, but like I said, we will consider that option as a last resort. Please, listen very carefully to what I say next."

He showed the commander of the unit the inside of the cavern's door. "I have prepared this enclosure with wards to seal him in once the door is shut. Do not open it, no matter what you hear from myself or my guardians until the glyph that I've placed on the outside of the door fades. That will be your signal that the spirit has been sent, and all is safe. If you do not see that glyph fade within a day, it will be up to you to devise a means to physically lock the door from the outside to prevent anyone from opening it and releasing him. Be certain that the lock is a good one—one imbued with enchantments that abjure spirit magic—or he may come straight for you if he escapes. Spirits aren't material, so they can pass through anything that isn't barred by magical means. Yet they're more likely to manifest physically if there is an abundance of magic available. You must prevent anything from entering or leaving this cavern until it is safe to do so."

The commander of the unit understood the sacrifice the summoner and his guardians were making. It was almost enough to change his mind about magic being a threat to Spira … _almost_. "Understood," he answered with unease.

Midoriha gave the signal for the guards outside to seal off the bunker, locking himself and his guardians into the torch-lit den with the sedated, possessed guard. His guardians took up defensive positions around the spirit. Then, the summoner clasped his magical staff between his thin hands and began his dance, not knowing what to expect. Yevon's teachings said nothing about unsent who possess the living, but the books warned that unsent taking their former human shapes, rather than that of fiends, were the hardest to destroy.

))((

On the edge of consciousness, as the sleep potion began to fade in his host's bloodstream, Shuyin began to feel himself being pulled away. "No …" He shook his head in groggy protest, trying to wake from the effects of the sleep potion. "No, not ready … Not without Lenne ..."

Midoriha's guardians sprang into action, holding the possessed man down.

Shuyin willed his host to awaken and resist their physical restraint. He had to stop the summoner from sending him. "Let go of me! I've got to find Lenne!" he shouted over his host's voice. "I won't go until I find her!" The living body he invaded gave him just enough shelter to weaken the effects of the Farplane portal opened over him.

Midoriha paused his half-finished spell and allowed it to fade. "Who is Lenne? If you're looking for someone left behind, perhaps we can help you find her or carry a message to her."

Shuyin paused, too, surprised that the summoner was willing to listen. But then he frowned again. "I don't need your help. She was betrayed by Yevon and his temple once already. And you're a traitor just like Renuta if you answered the Founders' call to send me."

"What?" The summoner shook his head, confused. "No. I—no. I'm here because my cousin asked Djose for help. I thought it would show the Founders that summoners mean no harm. I'm not here to betray anyone. I'm here to help you rest."

"Not without Lenne!"

"Please explain, then. I don't understand your accusations. Renuta and Yevon betrayed someone named Lenne? What happened to you? What happened to make your hate so strong?"

Shuyin realized this scrawny, nerdy little summoner was honestly ignorant of what had passed as he exchanged uneasy glances with his guardians. Djose didn't know. How could they not know? "Zanarkand was attacked by the temple in Bevelle. Everyone from Zanarkand is dead. _Everyone._"

Midoriha couldn't believe it. "Dead? … Bevelle turned its back on Yevon?"

"Yevon was going to turn Lenne into a Fayth for the temple in Bevelle. So Bevelle captured Lenne and was going to kill her. I tried to free her, but … " A tear slid down the guard's cheek for a girl he never met.

"I'm … so sorry."

"Traitors ..." Shuyin bitterly answered. "Murderers ..."

Aghast, Midoriha looked to his guardians. "Do you realize what this means? If Bevelle has betrayed Yevon and destroyed Zanarkand?"

"Bevelle is in ruins, too," Shuyin corrected. "Yevon turned the last of Zanarkand's survivors into Fayth, so he could turn himself into an aeon strong enough to punish Bevelle. _If_ it survives, Lenne's little brother will become the Fayth for Bevelle's temple in her place." Shuyin's tone darkened. "If you let me out of here, I'll let you live. But I won't let you send me without Lenne. I _will_ find her."

Midoriha looked down at the summoning staff in his hands, then he looked at his guardians, all of whom were shaking their heads in silent protest, though they now sympathized with the spirit, grieved for two cities, and feared what this might mean for Spira's future. "I can't let you out of here. I'm sorry. You've taken lives that were not yours to take. I cannot let you hurt anyone else."

"They deserved it!"

"I'm sorry," Midoriha repeated. "But I promise I will search for Lenne. I'll tell her you were looking for her and—"

Shuyin's spirit suddenly flew out of the guard's body into the summoner's mind, forcing his final moments in Zanarkand and Bevelle upon him. _You will let me out of here!_

Midoriha cried out and fell to his knees, clutching his head. "No!" He struggled against the overpowering emotions and visions, but Shuyin fought for and won control. And there was no way he was going to let the summoner finish that sending spell. Midoriha ran to the door and tried to pry it open. When he couldn't do it, he turned toward his horrified guardians. "Open this door right now!"

They had gasped at his possession but felt helpless to do anything about it. They couldn't kill their own summoner. "We don't take orders from anyone, but Midoriha!" one of the guardians responded. "Release him!"

Frustrated at their refusal, Shuyin scanned this host's talents. Summoners didn't usually know black magic, but this one knew a few elemental basics, so he fired a Thundaga spell at the one that rebuked him.

The guardian suffered electrical burns and nearly passed out, but drew his sword as he stumbled. He started to rush forward and attack but was caught by his comrade.

"Stop! You'll hurt Midoriha!"

"I'll take him down then! I'm getting out of here!" The Founders guard that had been Shuyin's previous host drew his gun and took aim.

))((

Shuyin growled and cast magic back at him—then all of them. Dark, maddening thoughts full of futility and hate consumed everyone trapped inside the bunker. And as they tried to cope with their loss of control, Shuyin tried the thundaga spell on the door. The warded door, however, remained unharmed. He dug at the creases in the rock until his scraped fingers bled. But if the summoner could cast magic-proof glyphs, maybe he could also _uncast_ them. Wondering what spell that would be, Shuyin began to search Midoriha's mind.

Preoccupied with his attempt to escape, Shuyin paid no attention to Midoriha's guardians falling to the wild rages of his madness spell and raising their weapons against one another. Each guardian saw the other as a firing squad, fiend, or monstrous machina. Eventually, one of the guardians pointed his gun at the summoner and pulled the trigger.

Shuyin felt no pain as Midoriha slumped to the ground. He regretted the loss of his ability to throw around more magic, but at least the threat of being sent was removed. Fleeing his dying host, he rushed the door in spirit form. He tried to seep through it, but the chains of hate and despair had grown so strong that he could not break past the wards the summoner set within. Shuyin turned and flew at the other men in rage, entering each one until every host snapped and killed one of the others. When he was down to the last living body, he threw himself against the door until his battered host dropped in exhaustion. Shuyin absorbed all of the frustration and despair of each victim, and it fed his unsent chains until he withdrew from his final victim, set his gun under his chin, and fired one last fatal shot.

Assuming his own ethereal form among the bodies of the dead guard, summoner, and guardians that littered the ground around him, Shuyin tried to go through each of the walls in several places and continued to dig at the embedded glyphs that locked him in. But no amount of scraping would peel away the magic. "Lenne!" he yelled through the door, knowing she could not hear him.

At last, exhausted and unable to stop the memories from replaying in his fragile mind, Shuyin collapsed to the floor of his enforced tomb. Drawing his knees to his chest, he covered his head with his arms and wept angry tears ... alone.

Eventually, the torch burned itself out, and Shuyin was shrouded in pitch darkness as he sat in the pyreflies with nothing but his memories.

It would be almost a thousand years before that door opened again to release his tormented soul.

))((

Yunalesca did not visit the Founders' headquarters to make her demands on their surrender. She did not get the chance.

A few days later, Sin rose from the sea and took flight toward the Founder's headquarters on the precipice overlooking Mushroom Rock Road. It took one last look at the towers, then cast the same magic it had used on Bevelle's army, disintegrating Spira's last visible connection to the empire that _thought_ it could control Yu Yevon.

))((

Beneath the temple in Bevelle, in the Via Infinito, the real Spira, the spirit of the ship itself, could feel the destructive forces of Sin pounding her surface lands. She grieved the loss of Zanarkand and the attack on Bevelle, but the obliteration of the Founders' headquarters was something very different.

Sin had thrust all of Spira into open rebellion against their creators. Fearing the worst for her people in retaliation from Earth, the spirit of the ship followed Yevon's earlier advice and released her orbit lock, severing the last connection to the world that gave birth to her own. She was careful not to let the people who depended on her know that anything was amiss while she fled into an unknown sector of the universe. As long as the Farplane's magic kept their sun shining, their atmosphere circulating, and their gravitational level constant, she could sustain the lives of her people no matter where they drifted in space.

The Founders were gone, and Spira was finally free … or so everyone thought.


	26. Chapter 26: Summoning the Dream

Chapter 26: Summoning the Dream

A knock on the door of Yunalesca's study drew her attention away from her work. Then an acolyte stepped in with a bow. "The ronso have arrived with our aeon, My Lady."

"Thank you." Yunalesca rose from her desk and closed the book she had been scribing. She had been busy for several weeks hunting down traitors and trying to put the temple back in order. Though many had sided with Maester Renuta and the Founders before the war, after Bevelle was left half-undone by Sin, it was amazing how many temple clergy and guards denied they ever supported the rebellion. Now that the city was rebuilding, she turned her focus toward opening the temple's standard services and informing the citizens how Bevelle's dependency upon machina destroyed Zanarkand _and _Bevelle. She insisted that the only way to prevent it from happening again was to follow the teachings of her father and ban as many impersonal machina from widespread public use as possible. Therefore, her most recent matters of business entailed organizing and detailing those teachings into formal documents for all of Yevon's temples. "Deliver this to my husband," she told the acolyte. "Tell him I am placing the aeon on the lower level, and ask him to meet me there as soon as he has a chance."

"Yes, My Lady." The acolyte accepted the book and carried it away with her.

Yunalesca closed her door behind her and headed toward the ronso in the main hall. "Thank you for bringing him. I know it must have been a wearisome journey. Please, come with me."

))((

Bahamut looked around the big temple in wonder as he followed the four large ronso under strength-enhancement spells to transport his stone statue from Mt. Gagazet to Bevelle. They pulled it on an all-terrain sled most of the distance, but now that they were actually here, they carried it on their shoulders. The high summoner's daughter, now high summoner herself, led them to a service lift at the back of the temple. It was large enough to allow all four ronso to carry the stone onto the lift at once, but Bahamut chose to levitate above them as they descended into the depths under the temple. When he touched ground once more, he followed the party to the chamber where his new home would be and watched the ronso carefully install the stone node in its permanent place.

Yunalesca thanked the ronso again when they finished. "Please go back the way that you came and ask to be led to the dining hall. Replenish your energy and rest before you return home."

"Elder Kinan says Fayth Scar safe with ronso."

"Tell him I am grateful. I sent messengers to all of our temples, letting them know that Zanarkand was attacked by Bevelle, and word is now being broadcast to all the other cities. Bevelle wanted to make sure it had everything under control before sharing the news, but word is getting around now. No one should be going to Zanarkand in the future, except summoners on pilgrimage to pay their respects. It is now a sacred resting place for my father and many other lost souls." Yunalesca waited until the ronso bowed and left. Then, she faced the stone node that contained the boy's eternally sleeping body. "Bahamut, can you hear me?"

The boy climbed onto the glass dome covering the stone node and sat down on it, then levitated just a little above it before revealing himself to her. It was a strain to make contact between the spirit and material dimensions this way, especially with so little magic present.

She smiled upon seeing him. "This is your new home. You are under the Bevelle temple." She spread her arms, inviting him to look around. "I have this place back under Yevonite control now, but loyalists of the Founders still exist all across Spira. Therefore, you must listen carefully to what I have to say." Lowering her arms, she took a few steps toward him, folding her hands before her. "You are a special Fayth, Bahamut. You are not only the guardian of the temple, but you are also the guardian of the entrance to the ship. And I have decided it would be best if the fact that we are a colony ship was forgotten. The entrance to the bridge has been sealed off by Spira herself to prevent anyone from taking over a mutinous command of our course, which is probably just as well. But I will be taking further measures to be sure that the entrance to the dungeons and the Farplane will be locked away, even from the majority of the temple priests. From now on, the only entrance will be the balcony maintained by the guado in Guadosalam. They know better than anyone not to disrupt the Farplane's magic, for they are the ones who brought it to us. The Founders may have been destroyed by Sin, but their loyal supporters are refusing to disassemble their machina, and they're boasting that they will someday rise in power and return. But we've come too far to turn back now. Spira must remain free. So, we must forget that she is a ship and erase our memories of Earth. It's the only way for Spira to become the world unto herself that she was meant to be."

"You can't erase everyone's memories," he spoke through the dimensional barrier.

"Perhaps not directly, but memories can become dusty and eventually forgotten if we don't pass them on to younger generations. As we speak, my priests are scouring all the libraries and public offices on Spira to remove any mention of Earth-related things from the archives. The temples have been instructed never to teach about it or mention it again. When the older generations' mumblings become unfashionable and vague, the younger generations won't care about history anymore."

"If they don't talk about the mistakes of the past, they will repeat them."

"Not if they obey Yevon's rules. His rules are all they need to be free of the sins that led to this destruction."

"But if they don't understand—"

"_You_ understand, Bahamut. As a Fayth, you will always be a key to the past. You must guard it well, to prevent others from threatening to destroy Spira in the future."

Thoughtful, Yunalesca began to pace. "I'm writing a book about my father's sacred teachings and passing them among the temples so the citizens of this _new_ Spira will know how to prevent this from happening again. I have devised a new training program for all summoners, in which they should try to gain the trust of as many aeons as they can to defend their towns and villages from any threatening fiends once all the machina are gone. It will be up to the Fayth to judge which summoners are worthy of your trust. Choose quality over quantity. Test their magic, their endurance, and their wisdom. Your choices in the dream will shape Spira's future, but once you have bonded with your chosen summoners, it is their actions that will shape reality."

His presence was beginning to flicker and thin at the strain of reaching back into reality on his own. "Understood."

The footfalls of armored boots echoed down the hall behind her. Smiling at the familiarity of her husband's long strides, Yunalesca gave the boy a bow and allowed him to depart. Then, she turned to face Zaon as he entered the chamber. "Did you read it?" She indicated the document he was holding. "What did you think?"

Bahamut was exhausted from his effort to become visible to the material world for a few minutes. Perhaps the only exhaustion a spirit could feel was in trying to be real again. He stopped levitating and sat sprawled on his tomb.

"I think it's very comprehensive," Zaon answered. "Perhaps a little _too_ comprehensive," he added with a slight wince and an amused smirk. "You wish to be rid of destructive machina, not every tool that mankind has ever created. You would ban airships and hovercars?"

"Magic can take the place of any machina. We have become too dependent on luxuries and should return to using our feet and teleports that cover only short distances, like our lifts here in the temple or the teleport pads we gave to the ronso. It's harder to attack a city when you can't travel more than snail's pace for a slug's length," she added with a confident smile as she draped her arms around his neck.

"Then, I assume you will be taking guns away from the temple guards?"

"Of course. Our task is to heal and protect. Only those trusted to pass the Fayth's Cloister of Trials will be permitted to use aeons to combat fiends. Mages will also have to pass tests to prove they are worthy of magic studies."

He lifted a brow in amusement. "Clocks, communication spheres, sphere recorders ..."

"Can all operate on magical energy harnessed from places like Macalania, and aren't likely to harm someone," she reminded him. "But I suppose I can cross a few exceptions off of that forbidden machina list. What's important is that it becomes impossible to create a large weapon stash for anyone, including us."

"And what will you do with the discarded machina?"

She frowned at him for finding an argument she had not yet considered. "I don't know. We'll … dump them in the desert, or something. Bury them under tons of sand." She took her book back from him since it would need an edit about disposal options.

Zaon chuckled. "That should do nice things to the engines and gears. You know, I have to say, I'm surprised at how easily you've slipped into this leadership position. Then again, with a father like Yevon, you were practically raised for the role, weren't you. Perhaps this has been your destiny all along."

Yunalesca blushed at her husband's confidence in her. "Thank you. I think that deserves a candlelight dinner." She gave him a kiss, then withdrew to gesture toward the stone node. "By the way, did you see our Fayth has arrived?"

Zaon couldn't see the ghostly little boy, but he bowed reverently before the tomb. "Hopefully, he will be able to restore some sanctity to this place. But, the reason I came down here is to tell you we have an urgent visitor upstairs—a man from Besaid City."

"From the Besaid temple?"

"I don't think he's a temple official. He looks quite desperate. Said he wouldn't talk to anyone but you, though we offered to hear him out."

"Besaid City is nothing but beach resorts and health spas. How could he be desperate?" Curious, Yunalesca left the chamber of the Fayth with her husband and took the lift to the main hall of the Bevelle temple once more.

Bahamut followed since he had nothing better to do.

Yunalesca spotted the man from Besaid City right away. He was sweaty, slightly ragged in appearance, and had a strange expression of urgency on his face—an expression she had seen all too recently in both Zanarkand and Bevelle. "Can I help you?"

As soon as the man saw her, he rushed forward and bowed to his hands and knees. "Lady Yunalesca, please! _Please_ come to Besaid City and rid us of the giant fiend! It has destroyed everything! Our temple said our aeon could defeat it, but it wasn't strong enough. Perhaps you can summon something stronger. They say you saved Bevelle before it was a total loss—that you drove the beast away. Besaid is in ruins now. Please help us!" The man broke into tears and set his forehead on his hands as he mourned.

Bahamut was at a loss for words. Why would Yevon attack Besaid City? Besaid had done nothing wrong.

Yunalesca seemed just as disturbed by the news. "Perhaps … there were traitors among you, or it sensed you had weapon machina," she decided. "Is it gone now?"

"Yes." The man lifted his chin and wiped his face on his sleeve. "But the survivors are frightened—very frightened. Please, send help before it returns."

"I'm sorry to hear of your losses," she quietly sympathized. "Tell your people ..." She thought for a moment. "Tell them that if they live according to Yevon's teachings, it shouldn't return. In the meantime, they should get rid of all their machina. I will be creating more aeons soon, and one of them will be strong enough to defeat the one that troubled Besaid. I promise."

"Thank you. Bless you, Lady Yunalesca." The man stood, bowed, straightened, and then bowed again.

"Rest and have something to eat before you return home." She gestured to one of the nearby acolytes who had overheard his plea and led him away.

Zaon drew close enough to whisper to his wife. "That is the third attack in so many weeks. Your father didn't stop at Bevelle and the Founders' headquarters. He struck the small city built on bridges over the Moonflow _and_ the one along the highroad. Now he has struck Besaid City. How many more cities does he intend to hit before he has satiated his appetite for revenge?"

"He is destroying their machina and traitors."

"By hitting the entire city? That's what Bevelle did to Zanarkand. We are no better than Renuta and Guregohe if we let this continue. Your father's judgment has become too broad for the sins of Bevelle alone. He's spinning out of control from absorbing so much hatred and grief … so much death."

"Perhaps he's trying to tear down the old cities to get rid of the technology and Founder's loyalists," Yunalesca suggested, becoming upset.

"_Why_ he's doing it doesn't matter." Zaon lowered his voice but spoke with urgency. "That's no excuse for genocide. We must end it, Yunalesca. You know that we must." Placing his hands on her shoulders, he drew her into his arms to comfort her, though he knew his words hurt. "Your father is not himself anymore. I don't think he is capable of stopping himself."

Bahamut watched as Yunalesca struggled with Zaon's truth. She knew he was right, but her surrender was reluctant. "I will need to create … at least one final aeon," she whispered through her tears. "I will make it strong enough to destroy his armor."

"Only his armor?"

"I fear the dark prayers he summoned for his own physical transformation, but it is his aeon armor that was crafted from the souls and sorrows of those who died. It's the armor that absorbs and intensifies his rage, converting it into destructive magic," Yunalesca confessed as she lowered her gaze and grasped a handful of long, silver hair to draw over her shoulder as if it were a comforting blanket. "My father has done so many good things in his lifetime. His compassion for others is what drove him to establish these temples and push his magic beyond ordinary limits. If he could be free of the shell that surrounds him with rage, maybe he could calm down, even if he can never be himself again."

"Then ... no matter how much destruction he brings to Spira, you will not—"

"He is my _father_, Zaon!" she snapped. Then, she lowered her voice again, not wanting to draw attention to their conversation. "I will not take my own father's life." With a frown, she wiped away a tear and retreated to her study to edit her document on banned machina.

Zaon sighed and rubbed the tension from the back of his neck, clearly feeling guilty for suggesting patricide. But Yevon's taste for punishment had gone beyond justice.

Bahamut couldn't help but sympathize with Lady Yunalesca for not wanting to harm her father, but he also felt sorry for the Fayth that would have to face off against Yu Yevon in the future. Considering what he'd seen him do to Bevelle, defeating even his armored shell was _not_ going to be easy.

))((

As Sin continued to ravage various cities throughout Spira, summoners and pilgrims alike came to Bevelle to beg for Lady Yunalesca's help banishing it. She always promised the same thing—adherence to Yevon's teachings should prevent it from returning, and she would soon create an aeon of equal strength to defeat it.

When she was sure that Yevon's laws were firmly established, at least in Bevelle, Yunalesca journeyed back to the Zanarkand ruins with her husband to create the final aeon intended for one purpose only: the defeat of Sin.

Bahamut was curious to see how his summoner would handle this confrontation with her infamous father, so he followed.

Yunalesca went to the summoning chamber at the back and bottom halls of the Zanarkand temple, but as Zaon stood before her, her will began to crumble into tears.

"I love you." He kissed her forehead to encourage her to be strong.

"If I knew of any other way ..."

"This is the way it must be. No one else should bear this burden. We both know this. You are my summoner, and I am willing." Zaon stepped back, drew a breath, knelt on one knee, and waited.

Still fighting her own tears, the high summoner began the ancient dance that would transform her beloved guardian into a Fayth.

"What? No!" Bahamut watched in dismay as Yunalesca entombed Zaon's body in a stone node, not unlike his own. The ghostly boy touched down on the floor of the summoning chamber, where she wept over her husband's stone-encased soul. But he decided to remain hidden from her view, allowing her to grieve alone.

When Yunalesca was ready again, she straightened. "Zaon ..." She could barely make herself say his name, much less cast another spell, yet that is precisely what she did. A four-legged monstrosity with two forearms and large horns rose from the glyphs while her summoning magic pried a hole between reality and the spirit realm. As her creation rose above her, Yunalesca looked proud of the noble beast her Zaon had become. But at the same time, she could not bear to face him after what she had done. Weak enough now that she had trouble standing, she cast yet another spell right behind the summoning. For this new aeon to be strong enough to pierce Sin's armor, it needed another soul to fortify it similar to Sin's construction. Yunalesca's soul would have to do.

Bahamut watched with macabre fascination as the high summoner's spirit walked away from her body and was absorbed into her guardian's aeon. Yunalesca's physical body was in a meditative trance now, but the paired souls of the aeon turned around to face the chamber of the stars. The beast let out a haunting cry that echoed throughout Zanarkand's ruins. Their souls called out to Yevon, and it wasn't long before Sin rose from the dark waters beneath the dead city in response.

Zaon took the initiative with fast, powerful attacks, followed by strong black magic. He took a beating from Sin in return, but the shell did eventually crack and open. Like a crow digging into a broken clam, Zaon exposed the dark entity within.

Bahamut sighed with relief, but just when he thought the battle was won, the unthinkable happened. Yevon's aeon, which visibly radiated dark energy now, lashed out with one more powerful spell that stabbed into Zaon. Yunalesca's final aeon bellowed with rage and thrashed to escape as Yevon attempted to take him for his new shell.

Yunalesca's spirit was ejected from the battle for the aeon's body. "NO! Father!" She tried to run back to her husband. "Let Zaon go! He's trying to help you!" But as a spirit, she could do nothing while her father's dark aeon melded into her guardian's manifestation. "Zaon!" she screamed and ran back to her own body to reclaim it, but it was too late. When Yevon ripped his daughter's soul from her bonded aeon, he also severed her connection to her physical body. Spent with exhaustion from the effort of casting such difficult magic, the meditating summoner collapsed to the ground.

Bahamut gasped and ran forward, too, but in spirit form, he was just as helpless to aid either of them. Glancing at Zaon's stone node, the boy was surprised to find it completely void of any corpse or magical seals. Zaon's soul was now possessed by the enigmatic entity that had once been Yu Yevon.

The aeon paused for a moment at the sight of the pyreflies drawing together over his wife's body. Then, he solemnly retreated back into the dark waters beneath Zanarkand, and the old aeon armor burst into particles of magic that dispersed throughout the ruins.

Bahamut blinked in silence at the broken spirit clutching her own wrists with no way back into her mortal form. He didn't know what to say.

After a long moment of weeping over her death, the loss of her husband, and their defeat in the battle for her father's soul, Yunalesca looked up at the boy's spirit. She could see him now that they both existed on the same plane of magic. "You shouldn't have followed."

"I ... You're my summoner. I'm supposed to help you, but you didn't summon me."

"Because our bond would not have been strong enough to defeat Sin," she said through clenched teeth. Not even Yunalesca's close bond with her husband was enough.

"Is ... it over?" Bahamut softly asked.

Yunalesca looked down at her lifeless body and almost laughed at the irony of that question. "It will _never_ be over. Zaon was right. My father absorbed too much hatred and grief. He will use the new aeon to rebuild Sin again and again." With a sniffle, she wiped her tears and sat up straight. "It will take time, though. The people of Spira can use that time to rebuild their lives in peaceful calm." She lifted her gaze toward Mount Gagazet. "As long as they continue to honor my father's laws, there's a chance they can prevent his return … for a time. I will continue helping them defeat Sin to bring that calm as much as I can."

Bahamut's brows drew together in worry. "But if Lord Yevon continues to rebuild Sin, nothing is resolved. More people will die."

Yunalesca felt no chill as the wind blew through her. "I have done what I could, child. My father will be impossible to defeat now. But someday, someone will come this way to try again. Until then, all I can do is remain here and offer the spell for the final aeon to any summoners who survive the pilgrimage."

Bahamut backed away from Yunalesca's spirit with caution ... fear. Though she was a high summoner, Yunalesca had chosen to remain unsent. And somewhere out there beneath the pyreflies among the ruins, a new Sin sank below the waves to recover and dream.

))((

The sun was on the rise in the cloudless sky, marking the beginning of a brand new day—or at least the beginning of a day that was widely remembered by the Fayth. Dream Zanarkand was not nearly as populated as the real one had been, so only a few people hustled by, faded out, and reappeared periodically at the eastern end of the Zanarkand harbor. But the Fayth kept themselves busy by collecting memories from the dead in the Farplane, as well. They had done a fantastic job of gradually bringing the city itself back to life by attempting to fill those gaps.

Sighing to himself, Bahamut sat on the deck of Shuyin's houseboat, which remained docked at the far end of the pier across the water from the mainland ... as always. Staring out across the sparkling ocean, he was thinking quietly and minding his own business when he suddenly found himself in the middle of three children chasing one another. Two of the children sported chestnut-brown hair and hazel-green eyes, but the other boy had unruly blond hair that had been bleached into tints of white and gold from time spent outdoors under the sun. Though Bahamut hadn't met Shuyin when he was that young, he knew beyond a doubt that's who the blond boy was, and he smiled at the unexpected glimpse into the past.

"Walk!" a gruff voice behind them ordered. "Or someone's going to plow into something and get hurt!"

Bahamut's eyes widened, and he gasped in surprise as Jecht and another man walked right through him. Whose memories were these? Had Shuyin come back?

"Just set the crabs down right here," Jecht continued. "Let's go inside, and I'll show you where the cabin is. We'll head out after the kids have settled a bit. My boy's too wound up right now. Bound to push someone overboard when he's like that. Better for it to happen here than out in the middle of nowhere." He chuckled and took a sip of his beer.

"Rrraaahhh! Gotcha!" The energetic, blond-headed boy wrapped his arms around his friend and lifted him off the deck in a tackle, attempting to throw him aside.

The girl cried out as they collided and fell on top of her, bumping her head against the wall. "Ouch! Stop it!"

"Hey!" Jecht snatched his son up by the arm to scold him. "Calm down! Look at what you did to Kaila. Pay attention to what you're doing, or I'm going to plant your ass in a corner somewhere."

Bahamut blinked in astonishment. "Kaila?"

Two women helped the girl up and checked her head for abrasions. "What do you boys have to say for yourselves?" one of the women prompted.

"Sorry," the brown-haired boy reluctantly offered. The blond-haired boy only folded his arms across his pot-belly and frowned at the girl for spoiling his fun.

Jecht popped the back of his son's head. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Sorry," little Shuyin groused.

"Inside, wild child. And _walk_ this time." Jecht opened the door and gave his son a small push, encouraging his friend to follow. The blitzball player smirked in amusement at Kaila as she gave the boys a defensive, dirty look and entered the houseboat behind them, careful to keep her distance from their rough play. "Told ya," Jecht spoke to the other man, drawing a chuckle from him. "Thank the gods there was a wall there, or we'd be fishing her out of the water." He held the door for the other three adults to follow the children inside, then he closed the door behind himself.

Bahamut blinked in astonishment again, then turned around to see he wasn't alone. Kaila was perched on the rail of the top deck.

Hopping down from the rail, she descended the stairs to sit next to him on the lower deck. "It was a beautiful day for sailing. I'll always think of Shuyin on days like this." Smiling, she lifted her face to the sun in the clear blue sky and inhaled the salty air on the ocean breeze. "I didn't expect to find you here. I thought you didn't like being in the dream."

Bahamut looked back out to sea and sighed. "This was a good place to be. The boat could take us to the beach, and the beach was always fun, even if Shuyin did throw me in the water a lot."

Kaila laughed. "Well, _this_ boat isn't going anywhere outside of the bay. Even my memories of sailing on the ocean can't accommodate those limitations. No other place exists in this dream except Zanarkand—not even the rest of Spira. Yevon's done something to the dream so that some things from reality don't exist here."

"That's just as well." Bahamut turned his chin to face the ocean and spoke in a somewhat melancholy tone. "All of Spira outside the dream is doomed, anyway," he glumly answered.

Kaila leaned forward to peer under the quiet boy's hood. "What makes you say that?"

Bahamut relayed the events he witnessed regarding Yunalesca's final summoning.

Kaila's brows pinched together. "She tried to kill her own father?"

The boy shook his head. "She couldn't bring herself to do it, even though Lord Yevon's soul is no longer human. He's a fiend now—the biggest, strongest fiend in all of Spira. Lady Yunalesca set up the temples to encourage new summoners to gain the trust of all the Fayth at each of the other temples on a pilgrimage, so she believes that eventually, someone will come to Zanarkand expecting to find one here, too. But there's nothing left of Lord Zaon, so she's offering to stay and make new aeons for anyone who makes it this far. I guess no one else knows that spell except her. She and Lord Yevon both guarded their secrets of magic so closely." With a pout, Bahamut put his elbows on his knees and let his cheeks fall into his fists. "He'll always be angry at Spira for what happened to Zanarkand. And since he can possess other aeons like that, there's no chance of ever defeating him."

Kaila somberly considered Bahamut's insights. "I was right, then. That's why Lord Yevon summons us to dream. Our good memories—memories of Zanarkand before it died—soothe his conscious." She squinted at the boy in the warm sunlight that contrasted with his gloomy mood. "Is that why you came here, after witnessing such a thing? You probably have good memories here, too, somewhere under all the layers of time. Maybe you should try to find them."

Bahamut tilted his chin, curious at her phrasing more than her suggestion. "_Layers_ of time?"

"Time here doesn't work the way it does in reality, or you'd see too many people in the same place at the same time. There is no real present. Everything you see here happened in the past. So, time in this place has layers—like volumes in a video series. It goes as far back as the memories of our oldest souls but only goes up to our own final days. There's nothing new in the dream beyond that ... unless you want to consider the ripples."

Kaila had Bahamut's full attention now. "Ripples?"

"Alternate realities." She tried to think of how to explain it. "Memories are limited to a certain time and place, and sometimes they aren't very clear or correct. So, these people walking around ... Sometimes their clothing and faces blur or change, especially if two Fayth remember the same thing differently. People appear and fade unexpectedly because memories can't trace anything before or after what was actually experienced by the dead soul. Their actions follow the patterns from the past unless something is done to purposefully alter the pattern. It's like … revising a story for a different outcome."

Kaila looked back to where the children had their mishaps. "Shuyin had no choice but to knock me down and bump my head into the wall. No matter how many times I replay that memory, he will always do the same blockheaded thing because that's what really happened." She chuckled lightly to herself. "If I don't want to be squashed, the only way I can stop him is to change something. But changing one thing sometimes ends up changing other things. That's why we call them ripples." She looked back to Bahamut with a small wince. "Does that make sense?"

Bahamut nodded. "So ... how would you prevent your head from getting bumped?"

"Well, patterns are tough to break. Like the laws of physics, something put in motion stays in motion until something else stops it. It comes down to finding that something else that can make a difference." She tried to think for a moment, then stood with a grin. "Shuyin ran into me because he was tackling Koji, right? So, erasing Koji from the time flow should prevent it from happening."

"You would erase your own brother?" Bahamut didn't like the sound of that option.

"It's not really Koji. It's just a memory of him, and one that I can recall whenever I want." She turned around and replayed her memory, stopping it at a point _before_ Shuyin collided with his friend for his playful tackle. It was as easy as touching a memory sphere, only this memory sphere was life-sized and 3-D. In the blink of an eye, Koji's illusory presence vanished. Then, she set the time flow in motion again to test her theory.

"Rrraaahhh! Gotcha!" The blond-headed boy wrapped his arms around little Kaila and lifted her off the deck in a tackle, attempting to throw her aside.

Little Kaila cried out as he knocked her down and fell on top of her, bumping her head against the wall. "Ouch! Stop it!"

"Hey!" Jecht snatched his son up by the arm to scold him. "Calm down! Look at what you did to Kaila. Pay attention to what you're doing, or I'm going to plant your ass in a corner somewhere."

"Are you all right?" Dannae and Kaila's mother helped the girl up and checked her head for abrasions. "What do you have to say for yourself?" Dannae prompted.

Jecht popped the back of his son's head. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Sorry," little Shuyin groused.

"Inside, wild child. And _walk_ this time." Jecht opened the door and gave his son a small push.

Kaila stopped time and scowled at the results. "That little pinhead! He would have knocked me down anyway! What's wrong with him tackling little girls like that?"

"Wait a minute." Bahamut stood and pulled a toolbox from the side of the deck into the spot where the tackle takes place. "Run it again."

Kaila cleared the thought, then set it in motion from the beginning once more.

"Rrraaahhh! Gotcha!" The blond-headed boy reached out to grab little Kaila, but his foot hit the side of the toolbox, and he fell before tackling her. Crying out in pain and clutching his foot, he winced at the sensation that jolted through his stubbed toes.

Little Kaila turned around and saw that Shuyin hurt himself. "Did you step on something?" she asked, crouching next to him with curiosity.

"Hey!" Jecht shook his head in disgust and pushed the toolbox back into place. "Calm down! Serves you right for running when I told you not to. Pay attention to what you're doing, or I'm going to plant your ass in a corner somewhere."

"Are you all right?" Dannae checked Shuyin's foot for abrasions.

"It's a stubbed toe." Jecht hauled his son back onto his feet. "Geeze, stop babying him, or he's going to cry about it." Opening the door, he gave his son a small push. "Inside, wild child. And _walk_ this time."

Kaila cleared the memory. "Hey, good call! He still got in trouble, though. Shuyin was always in trouble for one reason or another." She giggled. "See? Patterns are hard to break." Looking toward the front door of the otherwise empty houseboat, she sighed. "It's a shame he isn't here to supply these memories himself, you know?"

"Shuyin's … not himself anymore," Bahamut reminded her.

She saddened and looked down at her feet. "I know. But he could make this place seem so real again. Koji could, too, if he were here. And Lenne. She's still missing, too, isn't she? So many unsent ..."

Bahamut nodded sadly and stared out at the peaceful ocean once more as he listened to the waves gently bumping the boat's hull against the pier. He had not seen his sister since he left for the ronso caverns. He wondered if she was searching for Shuyin the way he was searching for her. But Lenne was a summoner. Like Yunalesca, she knew better than to hang onto reality and risk turning into a fiend. "Will the Fayth just keep adding to the dream as more people die?"

Kaila shrugged. "I suppose. These memories have no real lives of their own, so that's the only way Dream Zanarkand can have a future. Even the ripples fade unless you stick with them and keep detouring them … because they never really happened. Eventually, though, new generations won't have any memories of Zanarkand … except for ruins … _if_ anyone ever visits them. And that won't help Lord Yevon. He needs us to dream of a living Zanarkand for as long as he lives. The past is the only thing that gives him peace."

Considering Yevon was now an immortal monster, Bahamut realized that might mean summoning Dream Zanarkand for a very, very, _very_ long time.


	27. Chapter 27: Legendary Hero

Chapter 27: Legendary Hero

Nine centuries and decades passed. The Final Summoning had led to the Spiral of Death. Each new decade brought the return of Sin. And each return saw another summoner and guardian sacrificed for Yevon's Calm. Cities were built and rebuilt on top of their own ruins, some barely having a chance to cope with their losses before they were struck again, while others never recovered at all. Spira became a world clinging to the laws and promises of Yevon in hopes that someday there would be an Eternal Calm—the belief that if they atoned, eventually, they would be free from Sin.

But in time, Spira did become a world in her own right. Due to the Temple of Yevon withholding spheres of the past, the decimation of the older populations, and the shift toward a more primitive means of survival, the orphaned, younger generations forgot their origins. The only thing that mattered was achieving ten years of Calm. That's how long it took for Yevon to rebuild Sin from whatever new aeon he possessed. The maesters were the only ones aware of Spira's past. And they were quick to realize that this knowledge gave them power.

The new maester of the Bevelle temple attempted to ban people from repeating the haunting song that the Fayth could be heard singing on occasion. But his ban failed to stop it from catching on among the population, so the maester after him told everyone it was a sacred song, sung in defiance of Sin, rather than in defiance of Bevelle. The maester after him subtly altered Yunalesca's writings to erase the fact that Bevelle and Yevon were ever enemies. And such changes continued down the line of leadership, enabling each maester of the Bevelle temple to become the new behind-the-scenes emperor of Spira in every aspect except name. Generation after generation grew up adhering to the evolving laws of the Temple of Yevon, but Sin never changed. It kept returning—kept demanding atonement.

Finding someone to blame was easy once the desert-dwelling Al Bhed began digging up the ancient machina destroyed on the remote island of Bikanel. The Al Bhed were an alien race of humanoids who had an uncanny talent with science and mathematics. Believing it was a waste to throw away good machina parts, their restoration of ancient technology quickly put them at odds with the Temple of Yevon. Declaring them heretics, the temple set out to make them an example to anyone who disobeyed Yevon's teachings. When Sin destroyed any towns or villages, Yevon's far-reaching finger pointed to the Al Bhed and their refusal to adhere to the machina ban.

Under Bevelle, Bahamut's spirit remained locked away, guarding his own secrets of the past. Alone in his chamber, bereft of even a cleaning maid to sweep the dust from his tomb, he spent most of his days in the suspended consciousness of the dream, more interested in exploring the logistics of alternate realities than finding his own memories. An occasional summoner would brave entering his halls and request his aid, and he played his role as the mighty dragon aeon when called upon. He befriended, loved, and lost many summoners, but he could only save them from harm for so long before the successful ones were sacrificed to Yevon in the end.

It saddened him that Spira's mortals had become trapped in this cycle of self-destruction that not even the immortal Fayth could break. They, too, were trapped by Yevon's summoning spell. In their eternal, non-restful slumber, the dream became the play that kept them occupied. After almost a thousand years of maintaining the same illusions and searching for lost memories, however, even that grew tiresome. Forever is too long to exist.

))((

Within the dream, Bahamut and Valefor, the Fayth from the temple in Besaid, stood together on the road to Zanarkand and watched as Sin crossed the threshold between reality and illusion on its own, as no other aeon could. It had just come from wreaking havoc somewhere else on Spira and returned to the dream to soothe itself with better memories … again. "Has it been ten years already?" Valefor asked. She was a young girl with brown hair in twin braids, only a few years older than Bahamut. They were the youngest among the Fayth. Having shared various summoners over the ages, the Fayth knew each other well and had come to look upon each other as family.

"A new high summoner from Bevelle has recently determined to begin the pilgrimage," Bahamut told her. "His name is Braska. He's a bit unusual because he was excommunicated from the temple for marrying an Al Bhed. Still, he's determined to make the pilgrimage because his wife was recently killed by Sin. He shows great promise for being the final one this time, so you will probably be meeting him soon." Bahamut sighed heavily and sat on the ground. "He leaves behind a small daughter. I just wish there was something more we could do for him so that he could go home to her."

"Maybe this time … Maybe Lord Braska will be the one strong enough to defeat both Sin and Lord Yevon." Valefor tried to sound optimistic.

"To defeat Lord Yevon, the final aeon must be able to resist his power of possession. But in almost a thousand years, no human or Fayth has been strong enough to do it—not even when their souls are combined." Bahamut kicked an illusory rock as he watched Sin sink beneath the surface. "Lady Yunalesca once told me that our choices in here shaped the future out there. But she was wrong. It's not enough. Nothing we do in here is ever going to change reality unless someone can create an aeon as powerful as Lord Yevon himself."

Valefor sighed. "It's a shame we can't change reality the way we make ripples in the dream. We could just erase Lord Yevon, and it would be as if the Machina War never happened. But it's his dream, so I guess deleting him would be kinda rude." She frowned with discouragement.

"I doubt we could delete him, even if we tried. His magic is unique because he wasn't transformed into a Fayth like everyone else. He transformed himself into something else. I'm not even sure if he's alive or dead, but I'm guessing he's like an unsent fiend, based on his vengeful behavior. Either way, he's real in the dream _and_ reality because he's a summoner and aeon at the same time, whereas we're nothing but ghosts until someone pulls together enough magic to make our aeons real. And even then, our aeons are no match for him because he can possess us." Feeling hopeless, Bahamut stared at the bits of broken buildings from the ruins of the real city that had somehow become adhered to the top of the Sin's colossal head - something that often happened to the old armor shell after basking between dimensions. But then an idea he never considered before struck him. "Who supplies the magic for the dream? The Fayth? Or Yevon?"

"Well, many of the Zanarkand Fayth never studied magic at all, yet they can summon illusions like experts. So, I guess that means the spell for summoning the dream comes from Yevon but passes through the Fayth's memories to shape it. Like how an artist's creativity flows through the brush and paint.

Bahamut faced Valefor with sudden inspiration. "Then maybe Yunalesca was right after all, but we've been using the wrong tools. We need a different tool—something Yevon isn't expecting. Maybe we could summon our own aeon?"

The novel idea gave her pause. "You mean like a Fayth's Fayth?" Valefor tilted her head sideways and gave him a funny look for his suggestion, but then she frowned in consternation as she thought about it more. "I suppose our memories are a bit like aeons since they're both made of magic. But … these illusions are empty. They have no souls to be turned into Fayth. We don't know the spells to make a Fayth or an aeon. And there's no one outside the dream to summon it if we did. You'd need some other way to make the illusion real."

"What about Sin? It doesn't need a summoner to enter or leave either dimension."

Valefor looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Sin won't offer to take an illusion into reality for us, especially if it knows why we're doing it."

Bahamut became animated with excitement. "What if we tricked him into it? What if we made one of these dream illusions real enough to hitch a ride with Yevon and defeat him on the other side?"

"An illusion couldn't defeat Yevon. Not even the final aeons can defeat Yevon."

"But our illusions are made with Yevon's magic! His _own_ summoning magic might be the _one_ thing strong enough to resist his possession magic. Or maybe the fact that an illusion has no soul would make it immune. And since it would be a combined summoning from all of the Fayth, it would be fortified. Like when the final aeon is joined by the summoner's spirit to make it stronger, or more like the souls used to create Sin and Lord Yevon's transformation. Something like that might even be stronger than Yevon!"

Valefor considered the idea again. "Do you really think it could work?"

"If it fails, we've lost nothing but a few pyreflies. But if even one real life can be saved, it's worth a try, don't you think?" The boy tapped his chin as he started planning aloud. "The illusion would have to be someone lots of people remember, so we can fortify it with lots and lots of pyreflies. If we do it right, no one has to know he's not real. Not even the illusion will know he's an illusion."

"If he's going to fight Sin and Yevon, he would need to be a good warrior—someone physically strong and able to endure the battles," Valefor suggested, catching on.

"He would need to be persistent, too—someone who won't accept defeat," Bahamut added.

"Someone willing to lay down his life to save everyone else." Valefor shook her head at the impossible combination. "We would need a legendary hero. It's too bad we can't create Superman. Superman could throw Sin into another galaxy."

Bahamut looked toward the Zanarkand harbor. Only one answer came to mind. "Jecht."

Valefor pulled a face. "Jecht? The blitzball player? But … he's a _blitzball player_."

"Summoner Ohalland was a blitzball player. So was Shuyin. Blitzball players are up to the physical challenge and don't easily accept defeat." Bahamut asserted. "That's why Jecht was a champion. He's probably the biggest hero Zanarkand ever had."

"But ... I never met Jecht. And neither did you. If we don't have personal memories of him, it will be difficult to make him look real."

Bahamut smiled. "I know a Fayth who knew him well."

))((

Kaila blinked at the boy in the same stupefied manner that Valefor had. "Have you lost your mind? Jecht bragged a lot about being the best, but I seriously doubt he has what it takes to challenge something like Sin."

"He'd be made of Yevon's own spell, and he wouldn't be a real person. What better way to challenge Yevon than to make him fight his own magic? Nothing else has worked, and nothing's ever going to change if we don't try something different. If we can trick Yunalesca into creating a final aeon with _our_ guardian instead of a real person, the final aeon might be strong enough to defeat Sin _and_ resist Yevon's control."

Kaila quirked a brow, but then looked toward the houseboat with a heavy sigh. "I didn't come here half as much as Koji did. My memories of Jecht are sparse."

"We only need one. Kaila, everyone knows who Jecht was, but you're the only Fayth who knew him well enough to make him look real. We have to at least see if it's possible to mirror Yevon's magic back at him. And I can't think of anyone better suited the challenge. For Spira's sake, it's worth a try."

Accepting his argument, even if still full of doubt, Kaila walked onto the houseboat deck. Looking around, she tried to remember more from that beautiful day their families went sailing and deep-sea fishing.

Jecht appeared on the deck, checking the ropes and lines to prepare for the trip as three kids ran circles around him.

"All right enough of that." Jecht attempted to continue his task despite the rowdy behavior. But then one of the little munchkins bumped into him. Frowning and grumbling to himself, he tied off the last rope and faced them like a ship's captain—which he was. "I said enough! Sit down!"

Immediately, the children froze, dropped to the deck, and stared wide-eyed at him.

"What do you think this is, a zoo? One of you little monkeys go get my bait, and I'll thread your hooks for you. You, the blond runt," he said, making all of them giggle, including his son. Little Shuyin jumped up and ran to get the bait bucket.

Bahamut smiled at how innocent Shuyin seemed back then, but then stopped time before the fishing lesson could start. "All we have to do is find the moment that Jecht disappeared and prevent that from happening, so we can send him to a summoner instead."

"But Jecht is the only one who would know what really happened," Kaila reminded him.

"His memories should be cataloged in here with everyone else's by now. We just have to find them."

Easier said than done. Kaila and Bahamut sat on the deck of the houseboat and sifted through time flow after time flow, watching memories of every visitor or family member that came to the houseboat, until they came to one startling time flow that involved Jecht coming out of the front door, alone and in a very foul mood. He was carrying a six-pack of his favorite brew and stopped to grab one of the blitzballs from a bunch lined up on the side of the deck. Then, he stormed to a smaller boat roped a short distance from the larger one.

"I think we just found it," Kaila sadly remarked, as they watched him row away. "I wonder what happened to upset him so much?"

Bahamut leaped from the deck, landing softly on one end of the boat to stay with Jecht. "We can't let him disappear this time," he called back to Kaila.

Kaila flew behind them until she could perch on the side of the boat, unafraid that her ghostly presence might tip it. "We could become visible to him and just ask him to do this for us, you know."

The boy's expression flattened. "Do you honestly think he'd agree to go to another world and banish a monster that no one has been able to defeat in over nine hundred years?"

She frowned and scratched her head in defeat. "But it feels _weird_, you know?"

"He's not real," Bahamut reminded her. "And Jecht disappeared on his family anyway, so it's not like we're taking him away from them."

"I know, but ... we're still pushing him into a reality he knows nothing about. Regardless of whatever happened to him the day he disappeared, he's been dead for over nine hundred years now. Spira will be a completely different world to him once he's beyond Dream Zanarkand."

"Ripples diverge from what they remember anyway. This is no different from altering an illusion that's going to stay in the dream."

"It's very different, Bahamut. He'll be living beyond his memories _after _he's made real. In the dream, we can wipe the slate clean and restart as many times as we want because it won't change anything that's already happened. But out there, the future hasn't been written yet. And we're throwing him into it. If it works, it will give him a real life again after he's been dead for centuries."

The boy had not considered that. "But he's just a memory. Memories never lived in the first place, so they never really died either. He'll still be an illusion. Nothing more. The only difference between this ripple and the others is that this one has a chance to make a real difference to someone out there."

"You mean it has a chance to make a lot of _real_ ripples," Kaila corrected. "Lots and lots of ripples."

Jecht finally stopped rowing alongside an isolated beach. Hopping out into the water, he dragged the boat half up on the sand, then unpacked his beer and blitzball. He was already quite drunk, but the first thing he did was sit in the sand and drink another can of beer while staring out at sea. Something was really bothering the man, but he kept it bottled, which only made him feel worse.

"Stay with him," Bahamut told Kaila. "Stop time before he does anything stupid. I'll be right back. We need more pyreflies if this is going to work."

))((

On Mt. Gagazet, Valefor had already rounded up the rest of the Fayth for the mission. "They've all agreed to help!" she eagerly announced when Bahamut arrived.

A strong young man with short ginger hair came forward among the gathering. Bearing a helmet under one arm, Ifrit was dressed in the armor of a Crusader from the Kilika temple. "Bahamut," he warmly greeted the boy before discussing this scheme. "Are you sure this will work?"

"No," the boy admitted. "But, it's worth a try."

"Remember, you cannot edit reality the way you can memories within this dream. If Jecht's illusion survives the transfer into reality, he might create problems out there that you can't erase."

"There is always a risk when trying something that has never done before."

A hooded woman in priestess attire joined the conversation. "You can guide him to his summoner, but after that, you will have to leave matters in their hands." Shiva had once studied as a summoner at the temple of Macalania. "Because of the nature of the sacrifice to become the Final Aeon, the summoner may choose from the other guardians. If Jecht is chosen, he must fight Sin of his own free will. But he may choose not to."

"I understand. And I'll watch to make sure he stays on task without hurting anyone."

"Then, if you are resolved and willing to take responsibility for his actions, we will help."

Bahamut nodded and led them back to the spot where Jecht spent his final moments—where Kaila had been watching the professional blitzball player practice. "Has anything happened?"

Chin in hand, elbow on knee, Kaila gave him a bored expression. "He's almost finished his last beer."

The boy gave the man a questionable glance.

Kaila sighed, boredom changing to sympathy. "Shuyin used to complain about Jecht's drinking, but … I had no idea it was this bad. I remember rumors that he drowned because he was drunk, but it doesn't make sense for a blitzball player to drown. Koji shouldn't have drowned either, but I guess sometimes it's the things we take for granted that defeat us in the end." Lifting her chin to Bahamut, she saw the other Fayth standing with him and knew it was time. Rising from her vigil in the sand, she joined them.

The boy stopped time for Jecht's illusion, then faced the rest of the Fayth that had followed him. All of the spirits were familiar with Jecht in some way or another and poured their memories into the illusion Kaila summoned. Focusing the magic of the dream into the illusion, they fortified Jecht with enough pyreflies to make him substantially different from any other memory in the dream. Most illusions were empty shells. But Jecht was given the internal design of a real human so he could react to the real world based on his changing perceptions, rather than frozen-in-time patterns. He could thirst, feel pain … even bleed. But would it be enough to make him seem real out there?

"Now, all we need to do is get him to a summoner. I nominate Lord Braska," Bahamut announced. "He fell out of favor with the temple because of his Al Bhed wife, but then lost her to Sin. He's not out for revenge, but he wants to help others avoid his suffering. He's wise and compassionate. His choices show he is fair and forgiving, and his magic is strong. I'm his only aeon at the moment because he's still in Bevelle finalizing his personal affairs before beginning the journey to meet the rest of you. But I think he's strong enough to make it to Zanarkand for the Final Summoning."

"How do we get Braska to summon Jecht if he doesn't know he exists?" Ifrit asked.

"Sin," Bahamut answered, drawing more than a few murmurs from the gathered Fayth. "Sin is the only aeon that can come and go as he pleases between dimensions."

Ixion, a sailor with a stern expression, crouched before the boy. "Sin was designed to solidify feelings into real manifestations—to use those feelings to create spawn and cast very destructive magic. If Jecht's illusion touches Sin, maybe it will be enough to anchor him to reality, even if it does not make him real. But, in doing so, we may lose him. It's the equivalent of sending a fiend among the mortals … like an unsent. If he harms Spira, are you prepared to destroy him?"

"I am."

Ixion straightened. "Then, you may begin."

With that blessing from the rest of the Fayth, Bahamut left the dream by opening his eyes from the silent meditation he had entered, sitting over his tomb in the Bevelle temple. Bursting up through the ceiling and floors above his chamber, he went through a back wall into the street. Then, he ran toward the docks, passing through people rather than taking the time to skirt around them. Once he made it to the pier, he sat down and waited. Timing had to be perfect.

))((

As a spirit, Bahamut felt no need for food or rest. He sat for what seemed like endless days watching the coast of Bevelle, waiting for Sin's inevitable swim-by arrival. Eventually, he was rewarded with the sight of the large shell lurking along the ocean's horizon. Closing his eyes, Bahamut sent his mind back into the dream.

"Sin has arrived in Bevelle," he spoke to Kaila, who sat on the beach slightly beyond Zanarkand's harbor. Most of the other Fayth had slipped away to tend to the dream or sleep, though a few still watched from afar.

"Have you found Lord Braska?" she asked.

"He's getting ready to travel south, but he's concerned about his daughter's welfare. He will not begin his journey until he is certain she has a suitable guardian. His heart is heavy these days, and I think his daughter is beginning to suspect why."

Kaila gazed out over the water. "I'm sure Jecht will do all that he can once he learns what's at stake. That's the kind of man he was when gameplay turned into sudden death matches."

Bahamut nodded and opened his eyes to leave the dream. Then, he stood and flew through the city toward the home of his summoner. Braska sat at his desk, mulling over papers concerning his daughter's legal guardianship. Straining to gather enough pyreflies to become visible in reality, Bahamut waited for the man's peripheral vision to sense his presence.

"What is it, Yuna?" The summoner's voice was gentle but tired as he continued scanning pages, rather than turning to look directly at the child at his elbow.

"Come." It was difficult to gain presence strong enough to appear before the living and speak, so Bahamut kept his communication to the point.

That was not his daughter's voice. Braska looked up from his reading and was surprised to see the boy's spirit. "Bahamut? Does something require my attention?"

"Dock three," the boy answered, then ran through the wall of the house to reach the docks before him.

))((

"Auron! Yuna!" Braska called toward the open door of his study as he grabbed his temple robes and pulled them on over his casual attire. Then long, urgent strides carried him toward the front door.

His guardian met him in the front hall, coming from the kitchen. Auron had been making himself a hot drink and sipped it with suspicion. "Trouble?"

"Bahamut just asked me to go to the docks. A Fayth showing up in my house can't be good news, can it?" Braska looked to the top of the stairs where his seven-year-old daughter stood. "Nana isn't in today, Yuna, and I can't let you stay here all alone. You'll have to come with us, but I want you to stay far back if any fiends are present. And you must obey me without question if I tell you to run. Do you understand?"

"Mh." The little, brown-haired girl bobbed her head, then hopped down the stairs and clasped her father's hand. Auron was reluctant to set down his steaming mug, but when Braska's daughter smiled at him so that her unusual two-toned eyes almost squinted shut, he sighed and surrendered the drink to grab his sword and coat. Yuna walked between the two men down to the docks, completely secure in their capable hands.

))((

Down at the pier, Bahamut's spirit faced the ocean ... and Sin. No longer visible to the real world, the boy closed his eyes and re-entered the dream to stand beside Kaila on the Zanarkand beach. "Braska's on his way."

"Let's hope this works." Kaila crossed her fingers, then started to unfreeze time.

"Wait!" Bahamut recreated the sword Shuyin used and placed it on Jecht's back. "We can't send him out there without a way to defend himself."

Satisfied that they had done all they could, Kaila unfroze time, and they both watched in anxious silence as the illusion of Jecht that the Fayth worked so hard to make _real_ waded into the ocean to practice his famous trick shots. Eventually, drunken Jecht did slip under the water. Both spirits gasped and ran to his aid but were surprised when he resurfaced.

"What?" Kaila stopped time again. "He's not supposed to come back up. Something has broken the pattern." She tried hard to think of what might have made the difference resulting in his death. "Wait. Koji died after a fiend attacked him. Do you suppose Jecht was attacked by a fiend, too? If so, Yevon has removed all fiends from the dream. We can't let Jecht survive and go home. That will ruin everything."

"But we don't want the illusion to die, so this is just as well. Jecht needs a different kind of fiend—one that can take him out of here." Bahamut conjured an illusionary copy of Sin into the dream Zanarkand, sitting in the water not far from where Jecht stood. Then, he unfroze time, hoping curiosity would take its natural course.

"What the—?" Surprised to find himself suddenly in the presence of a sleeping monster, Jecht stumbled backward. Thinking his drunkenness was playing tricks on his mind, he rubbed his eyes, blinked, and rubbed them again. But the enormous whale-like monster remained. "Damn, that's a big fish."

"He knows it wasn't there before," Bahamut whispered to Kaila, astonished. Usually, illusions showed no reaction to people and things changing in their vicinity. When Kaila erased Koji from Shuyin's intended tackle, Shuyin never noticed. "Jecht remembers what happened before we stopped time."

"Because he has no pattern to follow anymore." Kaila was awed and afraid at the same time for what they had created. "His script ended when the real Jecht died. This illusion is no longer a memory, Bahamut. We've created something totally different." She looked to him with worry. "Are you sure we didn't really bring him back to life?"

"He has no soul, Kaila. He's still just an illusion. Keep an eye on him. Make sure he goes out to sea. Make sure he touches Sin."

"But … Sin's an illusion, too."

"Not on the other side." Bahamut opened his eyes. Back in Bevelle, he leaped from the pier and ran across the water toward the real Sin. Sensing the approaching Fayth, an instinctive alarm went off with Sin, and it turned to swim away.

Bahamut thrust his hands against the shell. The magical toxin that surrounded Sin was insanely uncomfortable. Still, the boy's transformed existence as a Fayth, and the seal over his far-away tomb, protected him from being drawn into the swirling hate and despair that flooded his mind. He wasn't material enough to grasp the shell itself, but hanging onto his sanity and the magic that surrounded the shell, Bahamut closed his eyes to enter the dream once more, using the real Sin to temporarily dissolve the boundary between what was real and what was not.

Within the dream, the illusory Sin continued to sleep. When the monster didn't move, Jecht's curiosity got the better of him. Grabbing the edge of his boat, he jerked it free from the sand and pushed it back into the water, keeping it between himself and the monster, as if it were some kind of shield. Slowly, cautiously, he approached Sin.

Jecht reached for the strange beast, but his hand passed right through the illusory Sin, continuing through Bahamut's unseen Fayth, who rippled the dream to touch the real Sin. The moment the blitzball player touched the toxin, the pyrefly particles in his hand solidified, and he was drawn from the dream into reality. Jecht cried out in shock and horror, seeing his arm distort as it passed through the dimensions, but there was nothing he could do now to stop the rest of his body from being pulled all the way through.

When Jecht disappeared entirely, Bahamut opened his eyes again, in time to see his illusion splash solidly into the real ocean. Eager to see if his theory worked, Bahamut released his grip on Sin, disconnecting the dream from reality. Diving under the water, he tried to catch his illusion, but Jecht's body passed right through the boy's immaterial hands. The illusion had solidified, just like an aeon! He couldn't wait to tell the others that it worked! Success was short-lived, however, when he realized the drunken blitzball legend was in danger of drowning a second time. Straining to gather pyreflies again, Bahamut revealed his presence to Jecht. "Don't give up! Keep swimming! You have to reach the shore!"

))((

Half-drowned and still very drunk, Jecht was startled again, but this time at seeing a child's ghost underwater. Thinking his son had somehow followed him to a watery grave, he shot toward the surface and floundered in the large waves caused by the giant aeon.

Treading water, Jecht tried to get a grip on his senses. He was hallucinating. He had to be. But when he looked behind him, the giant "fish" was still there and on the defensive, swimming away after getting spooked by the contact. The ghostly child telling him to swim for the shore was still there, too. But now, pods shot from the colossal creature's shell into the water were opening into man-sized, blue fiends. Muttering a string of curses, Jecht turned and swam as fast as he could toward the shore. His life depended on it.

))((

"There!" Auron pointed to Sin's movement off the shore and shouldered his sword, ready for a fight. Sin was leaving, but its spawn was quickly heading their way.

Braska drew his staff and flashed his daughter a look of warning. "Yuna, go back to the city wall and stay there!"

Frightened, the small girl ran away from the piers and the hissing and flickering swarm of blue Sin spawn approaching land.

Jecht ducked under the pier in a failed attempt to hide and draw his sword. He swiped at a few of the spawn that followed, but the rest ignored him and headed for the humans above the docks.

Auron and Braska ran toward the spawn that began attacking men working in the dockyard, putting themselves between the workers and the threat. Auron sliced at the fiends that came toward them, while Braska drew the magical glyphs that would summon his only aeon. "Bahamut, thank you for your warning that Sin was at our back door."

))((

Expecting that they would need help fighting the swarm, Bahamut's spirit faded from the water near Jecht and materialized before his summoner in his black dragon form. Rushing toward the oncoming Sin spawn, the dragon's brute strength made short work of the fiends picking off dock workers. Individually, the small fiends weren't difficult to defeat, but their numbers made the battle chaotic until the last one went down.

When they had things back under control, Bahamut bowed before his summoner and was dismissed. Back in spirit form, Bahamut ran across the water to where Jecht was. The first part of their plan had been successfully accomplished, but without the second part, it wouldn't mean anything.

Jecht crawled onto the shore just as the city guards arrived on the scene. Coming out of the water, he stumbled and fell. Catching his breath from the fight and the swim, he was still trying to absorb the surreal shock of what had happened.

Bahamut strained to materialize once more. "You were drowning."

"I wasn't drowning," Jecht countered the blunt observation. "I know how to swim better than anyone. It's just a_ little difficult_ when I've got man-eating insects swarming after me!" He looked up with a wince and found himself facing the same mysterious boy that had appeared before him in the water. "You're not my kid. Who are you?"

Bahamut smiled, pleased that Jecht had made it this far. "You have to talk to Lord Braska."

"Who?"

Bahamut faded before the guards rushed to scoop Jecht up by his arms.

"Where'd the kid go?" Jecht looked around.

"What kid?" one of the guards responded.

"The kid that was just here talking to me!"

"Did the Sin spawn hurt you?" another guard asked.

"What's a Spin Sawn?"

The guard holding him sighed to the other with disgust. "He's not hurt. He's drunk."

"All right, what's your name?"

Jecht laughed. "Trick question, right?"

"He probably can't remember. He was out there swimming in Sin's toxin," the first guard said to the other, making a loopy gesture at the side of his head.

Jecht took offense. "I'm not crazy, you moron; I'm Jecht!" When neither of them seemed awed with recognition, he frowned. "Abes' MVP for the last several _years_? You know, I don't think I'm the only one tippin' back a few around here." He made a drinking gesture, straightened and looked at the red walls facing the docks, then swayed slightly. "By the way … where is here?"

The guard sighed. "Bevelle."

"What? There's no way I swam from Zanarkand to Bevelle in the blink of an eye."

"Zanarkand?" The two guards looked at each other and laughed. "Alcohol and Sin's toxin are an ugly mix," one joked to the other. "Okay, 'Jecht' from 'Zanarkand,' let's go get you a nice, comfy cell where you can sleep it off." He took Jecht's arm and attempted to lead him away.

Jecht tried to pull away. "Oh, hell, no! I _know_ you're not taking me to jail on top of what I've just been through with that fish and ghost kid and fiends! I'm leaving this crazy-ass beach and going home!" He struggled to pull free again, but that only made them tighten their hold. A small scuffle ensued.

Bahamut smiled in amusement at Jecht's stubborn resistance. He had never met the man, but he could imagine Shuyin doing the same thing. Leaving the drunken blitzball player to argue with the Bevelle guards, the boy ran back to where Braska stood with one of the guards and the foreman of the docks.

"While the temple may no longer recognize you, we're grateful for your help, Lord Braska," the guard told him. "I'm sorry we didn't get here in time."

"Well, I had a bit of a heads-up that Sin was lurking off-shore." Braska glanced at the noisy man being dragged away. "What's that all about?" he asked when one of the guards that had struggled with Jecht joined them.

Auron snorted and sheathed his sword. "One too many beers, that's what."

"Some drunk, says he's from Zanarkand." The guard waved him off.

"Zanarkand?" Braska looked to Auron, more than a little amused. "Perhaps providence has sent us a tour guide."

"You mean a bar guide." Auron frowned. "No one could survive alone in those ruins."

"What's his name?" Braska asked.

"Called himself Jecht. You know him?" the guard answered.

"No, but … I'll be heading to Zanarkand soon. I'm intrigued by the coincidence, so I'd like to talk to him, if I may?" The summoner saw that his guardian wasn't impressed by his whim to interview the drunk, but Auron's skeptical expression only made Braska smile. Once more, he summoned his mighty aeon, and Bahamut returned in his dragon form. "Bahamut, please stay with Yuna. We'll only be gone a few minutes," he instructed before they walked away.

Yuna smiled as the black dragon approached her. "Bahamut." Without fear, the girl stroked his ebony scales with her small hands until he folded his wings and sat down beside her.

The dragon smiled to himself, pleased with the way the Fayth's plan had come together against the odds. Then his eyes drifted from Braska and Auron to the child happily turning her attention to some pretty rocks on the ground, and his heart went out to her, knowing she could be orphaned, regardless of whether this plan succeeded or failed. But if Jecht could defeat Sin _and_ Yevon, if there was any chance that Braska could come home to his daughter, and if she could grow up in a world free from Sin, the Fayth's gift to her father will have been worth the trouble.


	28. Chapter 28: Company of Three

Chapter 28: Company of Three

In the Bevelle temple's confinement chamber for lesser offenders, Braska found the shirtless, shoeless stranger who called himself Jecht in one of the ground-level cages. The gentle-mannered summoner introduced himself and offered to have him released if he would agree to accompany them to Zanarkand since that is where he claimed to be from. Auron protested and called him a drunk. Jecht agreed to the offer, looking forward to going home while enjoying the opportunity to defy the young man who insulted him.

The temple guard shook his head at Lord Braska's strange decision but unlocked Jecht's cell. After returning the confiscated longsword, the guard led them up and out of prison into the temple proper before bowing to the summoner and leaving him to his business.

Jecht's first question upon being freed had been to ask what a "summerner" was. His ignorance about something so central to modern Spira's culture drew another look of disapproval from the man named Auron, but Braska had chuckled in amusement.

Braska met Auron some time ago and was impressed by the warrior monk's diligence and respect, but the younger man still addressed him by his formal title, since that was how they interacted at the temple. Braska was used to being treated with a certain level of formality by most of the people around him, so he found Jecht's unpretentious mannerisms to be a humorous and refreshing change. "I summon aeons and white magic to send the souls of the dead to their final rest in the Farplane," he explained as he led the way out of the temple.

"Oh. Like white mages. Strange place you got here if people know how to send dead souls, but don't have a clue about blitzball."

"You play blitzball?"

"Do fish swim? Current and long-standing MVP for the Abes. In Zanarkand, I would have walked out of that cage on an autograph and season tickets."

Auron frowned at the boast. "Lord Braska is well-known for his missions and diplomatic efforts with the Al Bhed when he was a priest, and now he is undertaking a pilgrimage to defeat Sin. If not for him, you'd still be stuck in that cage."

Braska smiled with humility at his guardian's defense. "Those missions were hardly successful, considering how things turned out. And the people of Zanarkand probably have no need to be familiar with my excursions to Bikanel."

The guardian quirked a brow. "_People of Zanarkand_? Sir, he can't possibly be from -"

"We have not been to Zanarkand, yet, Auron." Braska tucked his hands within his voluminous sleeves. "We are in no position to say what's possible or impossible there. Perhaps things are different from what we've heard."

Jecht grinned at Auron's frustration and folded his arms across the large, black Abes symbol tattooed across his chest. "What are you supposed to be, anyway? Are you a summerner, too?"

Though annoyed at the tone of the question and the ignorance behind it, Auron kept his manners for Braska's sake. "I was a warrior monk."

"Was?" Jecht caught the past tense. "Oh, that's right. Braska said something in there about them cutting you loose because you refused to marry someone. I always thought monks shaved their heads and vowed to abstain from that sort of thing … and anything else that's fun." The blitzball player studied the warrior monk in brief consideration. "Hm, actually, that would explain a lot about you."

Lips pressed together, Auron pulled his long, black ponytail from beneath the neck of his red _haori_. "A monk disciplines every aspect of his being. If the body is disciplined, the mind will follow. Don't pollute that by reading more into it than what it is."

Jecht smirked. "In other words, your bride-to-be was a dog, or your preferences don't lean toward women."

Auron leaned across Braska's path to scowl at the scruffy, crude-mannered athlete. "Ever heard of something called _love_?"

"Sure. I love blitzball. I love beer. I love weekends. And my wife and I fell in love about ten years ago." The gruff man grew uncharacteristically quiet.

"Then she must have the patience of an angel and eyesight of a bat," Auron muttered.

"Hey, now, you watch what you say about my wife. Dannae is the kindest, most beautiful soul you ever laid eyes on."

"My apologies to _her_, then. I didn't love the woman they wanted me to marry. It would not have been an honorable decision for either of us, so I gave up my promotion and accepted Lord Braska's invitation to be his guardian, instead. And Lord Braska, forfeited his position in the temple because they _didn't_ want him to marry the woman he loved. Some things are more important than promotion and status." Auron's eyes shifted sidelong toward the other man, but he held his tongue before saying anything that might risk disrespecting Braska's decision.

"My diplomatic efforts with the Al Bhed fell apart when I fell in love with my wife," Braska explained to his new guardian. "Our relationship came together, but everything else fell apart. In the temple's eyes, I married a heretic. In the Al Bhed's eyes, my wife had betrayed her people for one of their persecutors. The fallout was not pleasant. But I have no regrets, and neither did she. She continued trying to communicate with her family and was on her way to see them when Sin attacked her airship. Airships and other machina are forbidden."

"Forbidden?" Jecht rubbed the back of his neck as he remembered the babble of the guard that arrested him. "Sin? That big fish that attacked the docks? That thing flies? Something that size could do considerable damage to an airship."

"Fish ..." Auron shook his head and leaned his back against the wall, barely able to contain his disbelief that Braska would even consider hiring this drunken fool.

Braska became puzzled. If Jecht didn't know what Sin was, that was odder than his claim Zanarkand origins. "That _fish_ killed my wife. And it has killed countless other people on Spira since the Machina War."

Jecht was confused. "_War_?"

Braska and Auron exchanged uneasy glances. "Sin purges machina to prevent war from ever happening again, but its punishments are relentless, devastating," Braska patiently explained. "That is why we must try to defeat it."

"You're going to fight that thing?"

"To fight Sin, we must find the strongest aeon in Spira. But it's located in Zanarkand."

"What's an aeon?" Now Jecht seemed _really_ lost.

"An aeon is the physical manifestation of a spirit summoned to aid us in battle against fiends."

"Never heard of it. Then again, I never heard of summerners either."

Auron gritted his teeth at the continued mispronunciation of the word and cast Braska another glance of doubt, asking if it still wasn't too late to change his mind about having him join them.

When they reached the city wall where Braska left Yuna, Jecht saw the black dragon aeon for the first time … and the little girl sitting under its wing. "We gotta help her!" He grabbed his sword.

Auron grabbed Jecht's wrist. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Braska calmly continued forward. "Jecht, this is Bahamut, the aeon from the Bevelle temple. He's here at my request, watching over my daughter in my absence." Braska invited Jecht to come closer and meet the dragon. Yuna popped up from where she was nestled beneath the dragon's wing and ran to her father's side. The dragon made no move to rise but bowed his head in greeting as the summoner and his guardians approached. Braska smiled at his daughter and set a hand on her head as she smiled back up at him. "As you can see, he is friendly, and my daughter is unharmed."

Releasing his sword, Jecht eyed the dragon with skepticism.

"Bahamut, Yuna … this is Sir Jecht. He says he is from Zanarkand, so I've invited him to join our pilgrimage as my new guardian."

Jecht snorted at the formal title Braska gave him.

Bahamut bowed his head again, and a noise that sounded like a purr rumbled in his throat to let Jecht know he had nothing to fear. Yuna gave a short curtsy to the stranger, smiled at the purr, and gave the dragon's supple scales a few pats.

Jecht started to touch the aeon, too, but changed his mind and jerked his hand back. "Uh, this won't suck me into a whole 'nother place, will it? 'Cause that last thing I touched dumped me here."

"Bahamut won't hurt you," Yuna told him.

Not to be upstaged by a little girl, the blitzball player patted the aeon's neck. "You're not afraid of this big ol' dragon?"

Yuna smiled bashfully and half-hid behind her father's robes before shaking her head.

Jecht bent his hands to his knees, so he was eye-level with her. "Hm, how old are you?"

"Seven."

"I have a son your age. He'd probably think it's pretty cool to pet a dragon. I think he'd be scared of it, though. You're braver than he is. Taller, too. He's kinda scrawny." He gave her a friendly wink and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Yuna."

Still bashful, she let him shake her small hand.

Braska glanced at Auron with worry, then addressed the blitzball player. "You have ... a young son?"

"Yep." Jecht straightened with a proud grin. "Quite a handful, too. All over the place and into everything that isn't nailed down. That kid's going to turn every hair on my head gray before I hit forty, but … he's a good kid. I gotta get back to him and my wife."

Braska didn't know what to say. An entire family living in the Zanarkand ruins? "Then, it seems we are not the only ones who have urgent reasons for taking this journey."

))((

Auron went to the table by the front door and picked up his drink that he never actually got to _drink_ before being called away to the docks. It was cold now, of course, so he took it to the kitchen and set it on the range's magical hot plate to warm it again. As he waited, he removed his red coat and draped it over the side of a chair at the table where Braska and Jecht sat talking.

Braska had been asking questions about Zanarkand, but Jecht's answers were bewildering and more than a little disturbing. Still, he tried not to let his concern show until he could figure out what was going on. Standing, Braska removed his elaborate headdress allowing his neatly tucked brown hair and mildly irritated neck to breathe. Setting it aside, he removed the heavy robe of his former office and draped it over a chair. The lighter, looser fabric of the kimono and hakama he wore underneath allowed him to move more freely in his own home. "The way you describe it, everything sounds as if the city was alive and well."

"Well, why wouldn't it be?" Jecht casually returned.

Braska wondered if they should tell him the place was supposed to be in ruins. Grabbing a sash, he put one end between his teeth and looped it around each arm to hold back the sleeves of the kimono. Then, after tying the sash's ends, he pulled a few items from the cupboards and began to prepare dinner. "What do you think, Auron?"

"I think he needs to sober up." Auron lifted his mug from the hot plate and tasted the drink to see if it was warm enough yet.

"You know, you're one to talk about my drinking habits when you're walking around with that big jug hanging on your hip." Jecht pointed to Auron's belt. "What'cha got in there? Bet it ain't apple juice."

Auron's expression flattened. "It's nog. I use it in fights sometimes, and it's a reminder to exercise self-discipline all other times."

"What's that supposed to mean? I got self-discipline."

"You were arrested for being drunk."

"I don't normally drink that heavy."

"Then why do it now?"

"It's _personal_." Jecht scratched his head and shrugged it off, not wanting to talk about it. Instead, he turned his attention to Braska, who was the more friendly and relaxed of the two, even though his manner of dress, large home, and the formal way others addressed him resembled nobility. "You do your own cooking? I figured a fancy-schmancy person like you would have servants to do that sort of thing."

Braska smiled as he chopped vegetables. "You're half right. I have a tutor and nanny to help care for Yuna, and I have various other people who show up once a week to take care of the house and grounds when I'm away." He paused for a moment. "My wife was a hands-on kind of woman, so she insisted on doing most of the work herself. It comes from being an Al Bhed, I suppose. Said she didn't need help. In fact, if I tinkered with things too much, she'd tell me to go back to the temple before I broke something. But I could cook better than her, at least." He sniffled, and his eyes started to water so that he had to put down the knife and lift a dish towel to dry them. When he looked up, he realized both of the other men were giving him oddly sympathetic stares. "Onions," he explained, humored at their assumptions as he held up the quarter that remained of the offending vegetable.

"Oh, right, onions ..." Jecht nodded in understanding.

"Jecht, could you please tell Yuna it's time to wash up for dinner?" Braska rinsed and dried his hands. "She's probably playing in the garden out back."

"No problem."

))((

Jecht found the small girl bouncing a blitzball in the garden directly behind the kitchen. She was an only child, like his son, and watching her play by herself brought back thoughts of him.

"Fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four ..." Yuna counted the number of times that she caught her ball as she bounced it on the brick pathway that wound through the lush flowers and ornamental grasses.

"That's not how you play blitzball," Jecht said as he approached her.

Yuna caught the ball and paused her game. "I wasn't playing blitzball," she politely answered.

"But that's a blitzball." He tapped the round thing in her arms.

"I know." Her expression fell. "But ... I can't swim."

Jecht tried not to chuckle at her confession and rubbed his chin. "I see. Well, swimming's easy to learn. My boy learned real fast after I threw him in the water. Got a pool around here? I could throw you in the water, too."

She shook her head, worried. "No, thank you."

Jecht laughed at how polar opposite this dainty little thing was from the headstrong child he was used to. "That's not what he said. He said, 'I don't want to!' And he made a grumpy face like this." He imitated his memory of the event. "And then he hid behind me. But you … You're not even afraid of a dragon, so why are you afraid of water? And, you don't even need it. You can play blitzball on the ground like any other game."

"But ... it's hard to play it alone."

"Hm, you got a point there. You could ask your dad to play some blitzball with you."

Yuna put a hand to her mouth and giggled at the idea.

Jecht chuckled. "Hm, you might be right about that. He's almost as prissy as you."

"Do you play blitzball with your son?"

"All the time. Or … at least I used to when I had the time. I'm a professional player, you know ... back in Zanarkand. He tries to copy my shots, but he's not very good at them. My shots are difficult, though. I guess he's got guts to even be trying them," he admitted.

"May I see one of your shots?"

"You may, My Lady." With a formal bow that didn't suit his personality at all, but made her giggle again, Jecht bumped the blitzball from her hands into his. "I'll show you one that I invented myself. It's legendary now. No one else can do it but me. I call it the Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III! Remember that name, kid, because this shot's going down in history."

Yuna blinked with astonishment at the impressive name. "Sub-lime-ly ... Mag-ni-fi-cent ..."

"Jecht Shot Mark III," he helped. Then, Jecht backed up and looked for a place to rebound the shot. The stone statue in the garden might do the trick, though the uneven surface could be a challenge for aiming it. Volleying the ball until he was able to slam it against the statue, he jumped up, spun, and kicked it.

Yuna gasped at the magnificent stunt then gasped again when the ball shattered the kitchen window. Running to the window, she peered through the broken glass to see both her father and Auron giving them severe frowns. With a wince, she turned around to face the blitzball player. "I think … you're in big trouble."

Jecht's mouth quirked as he scratched lightly at the beard scruff under his chin. "Hm, you might be right about that, too."

))((

Jecht bought some memory spheres before leaving on their journey, thinking it would be a great way to show his family where he had been while away from Zanarkand. Though Auron thought it was inappropriate for him to bring such a thing along for the sacred occasion, Braska agreed it would be a nice gift for their children.

The blitzball player began recording their journey from their final trip to the Bevelle temple south into the lake region of Macalania. There, Braska prayed to the Fayth of Shiva and received his second aeon. After staying at Rin's Travel Agency that night, they hiked through Macalania Woods the following day. When nightfall came again, they were still trying to find their way out of the meandering forest labyrinth, but they finally found their way to the spring and stopped to set up camp.

"Rations are low," Auron reported, checking their supplies. "We should supplement them." Lifting his chin, he looked around. "A forest like this should have something to forage or hunt, right?"

"Jecht, if you'll stay here and finish setting up the camp, Auron and I can hunt something for dinner," Braska suggested.

Jecht couldn't imagine Baska playing huntsman, but he agreed and set up his tent. "Hey, uh ... I've been thinking." Standing from his crouched position, he dropped the mallet with the other tent supplies and dusted the dirt from his hands. "You said this was a dangerous trip, right? And we've already met our share of fiends coming this far." He paused, troubled by his own thoughts. "If I don't make it back to my wife and kid, would you be sure that they get these spheres? So they know I didn't just walk out on them, or anything like that."

Braska looked to Auron, who kept silent on the matter but wore a grave expression. The summoner seemed troubled, too, but then offered an apologetic smile to Jecht's request. "As much as I would love to, I can't make that promise. The survival rate after the Final Summoning isn't very high," he admitted. "None of the summoners that make it as far as the Final Summoning have ever come back. That's why people are afraid to venture into the ruins and why we know so little about the place. The Zanarkand that we know was destroyed almost a thousand years ago in that terrible war with Bevelle. Sin has punished Spira ever since."

Jecht was stunned and skeptical. "What?" He snorted, thinking it was a joke, but when neither of their solemn expressions changed, he slowly realized they were serious. "This … is Spira's _future_? I time-traveled or something? That's impossible."

"And yet here you are," Braska reminded him. "I don't know what to make of it, either. You understand now why I am so intrigued about your origins and why I think we can help each other. The Zanarkand ruins are said to be haunted by some of the worst fiends on Spira. So, only summoners and their guardians dare to tread there. And they go only when it's necessary to confront Sin's destruction so the rest of Spira will have a period of Calm. No one has been able to keep Sin from returning yet, but if everyone would adhere to Yevon's laws, and if the summoner and his Final Aeon are strong enough, maybe someday the Calm will be eternal."

The blitzball player shook his head in disbelief and paced as he tried to absorb all the strange things he had seen and heard since being pulled away from the Zanarkand beach. "But … all I did was touch that big fish and … next thing I knew I was here. How do I get home?"

"I don't know how to help you return to your own time," Braska answered. "But if we can find a way, I promise I will do all that I can to help. I asked you to come with us because I was hoping your knowledge of the ruins would offer some advantage that previous summoners missed. But I will not ask you to walk the path I have chosen for the Final Summoning. You have a family to return to, a son who needs you."

Jecht frowned. "And you have a daughter that needs you. What about little Yuna?"

"Nana will take care of her until Auron returns. If Auron does not return, I've left her legal custody in the hands of her Al Bhed uncle. He didn't approve of his sister's choice in marrying me, but … Cid's a good man. I know he won't shut Yuna out if he knows she has no other family for refuge."

"How can you even talk about it like that?" Jecht became angry at how calm Braska was about the situation. "You don't just go wandering off on some suicide mission and leave your little girl behind! Everyone needs to escape and let off steam once in a while, but … I could never leave my boy on his own like that. I never meant to leave them like this!"

"Jecht, if Sin isn't challenged and pushed back by us, it will come for our children. It broke my heart to leave my daughter behind, but I don't want her to have to follow in my footsteps if there is something I can do to prevent it. And if Sin is what brought you here from your Zanarkand, then your son is not safe, either."

With a confused and heartbroken expression, Jecht sat down on a fallen log. This whole ordeal was too strange … too unfair. Sin could go after his wife and son, too? Because of a war that hasn't happened yet?

Braska sat down next to him and absently tapped the end of his staff in the dirt. "I'm sorry. It's difficult and unsettling to try to understand. And frankly, I don't understand either. But perhaps we will both find some answers along the way."

When Jecht didn't respond, Auron moved to Braska's side. "Perhaps we should skip the hunt tonight and stay here. We're not out of rations yet. They're just low."

"No, no. Go. We need food." Jecht waved them off. "I just … need some time to think about all this."

Braska nodded, knowing the burden of this revelation. "We'll try to hurry back," he promised before standing and hesitantly leaving with Auron to see what wildlife could be found in the area.

After they left, Jecht rubbed his hands over his face and sat alone with his thoughts for a long time. Then, he took a recording sphere from his packed supplies and set it in front of him, positioning it on himself. The memory of how he left his wife and his boy made it difficult to cope with the possibility that he might never see them again. If he survived the fiends, he still didn't know what brought him forward in time, so he had no clue how to reverse it. He just knew Sin had something to do with it. But if Sin could go back to Zanarkand, then his wife and boy weren't safe. He needed to warn them about Sin and tell the boy to protect his mother. He could bury the spheres along the path of their pilgrimage, and maybe someone would find them and … No. He shook his head, discouraged. Clues buried in the future couldn't be found in the past, could they? Maybe it wasn't the future, though. Maybe it was just an alternate reality. Or perhaps this was all just a dream. Jecht grasped his head, which was beginning to hurt from thinking too hard.

Finally, he sighed and shifted the bandana he wore about his forehead. Then, he touched the sphere to start recording all that he was thinking. It began as a message to his son, but the words weren't coming out the way he hoped, so, eventually, he declared he was no good at these things and turned off the sphere. Since it wasn't quite what he wanted to say, he turned it on once more to try again. "Anyways, I believe in you. Be good. Goodbye," he added before turning it off once more. Tapping it lightly against his palm, he debated whether to leave it or take it with him.

As he glanced to the side, he noticed Auron's jug of nog sitting among their supplies. Dark thoughts clouded Jecht's mind, and he set down the memory sphere to reach for the jug. "Let's see how this stuff tastes, shall we?" Uncorking the jug, he raised it to his lips and tasted a swallow. "Ahhhh! Good stuff." He took another swig. He wondered what his wife and son were doing right now. The last time he saw them—the looks on their faces as he struck his wife and his son walked in—maybe they were relieved he was gone. He couldn't explain or apologize or anything. Of all the rotten times to get separated. Groaning to himself, Jecht buried his head in one hand, pulled the red bandanna down over his eyes, then pulled it off of his head completely. Shivering in the chilly, crystal surroundings, he drank another swig from the jug to enjoy its warmth and numb his regrets.

))((

Unknown to Jecht, the spirits of Bahamut and Shiva sat across from him. Bahamut had kept a close eye on him since his arrival in Bevelle. And he had been pleased with the progress of their experimental illusion so far. But Jecht's realization that he was out of place and time seemed to devastate him. For the first time since the experiment began, Bahamut was worried. "He understands the importance of Braska's task now."

"Are you certain he can handle it?" Shiva clasped her hands at her knees.

"No," Bahamut admitted. "But he seems to be thinking more deeply, at least." No longer able to predict what this illusion would do, he crouched in front of Jecht to study his troubled expression. Then, he looked to Shiva with a mixture of sympathy and disappointment as they continued to keep silent watch over their illusion's experience in the real world.

))((

Returning from the hunt about an hour later, Auron and Braska carried the summoner's staff between them with three small animals strung over it. Auron spotted his jug of nog in Jecht's hands and immediately pushed his end of the staff into his lord's hands to snatch his jug from the blitzball player. "What do you think you're doing?" He checked the amount that remained.

"Just trying to stay warm, seeing as how these trees are covered in ice crystals or something. Surrounded by firewood and none of it's usable," Jecht grumbled. "Is that a fish or a bird?" He squinted at the strange animals they'd caught.

Auron turned to Braska with an angry frown. "He's drunk again. He's of no use to us as a drunk."

Braska was upset to see his new guardian like this, but he remained soft-spoken and calm. "Jecht, you need your sharpest senses about you on this journey." Shouldering the awkward and somewhat heavy staff of animals, he cast a magical fire over the pit. "There are fiends all around, and if you are not alert to them, you cannot hope to fight them off."

"My senses are fine. I'm just cold. And I'm not a drunk," he answered Auron with a slur.

Auron scowled at him. "When you steal someone else's drink, you're a drunk."

Jecht stood nose-to-nose with him. "I am the MPV for the best blitzball team on the ship! I deserve to de-stress a little now and then, especially while camping! So I'm not going to let some tight-ass monk call me a drunk." He punctuated his claim by giving Auron a firm shove backward.

"I call it as I see it." Auron shoved him right back. "What are you going to do? Hit me because you don't like the truth? Don't you see how out of control you are? Stay away from the nog!"

Braska stepped between them, with the staff bearing the hunted animals as a barrier. "I think these should be put on the spit if we're to start cooking them."

Auron begrudgingly accepted the duty. "Yes, My Lord."

With the warrior monk cooling his temper, the summoner turned to the blitzball player and sighed with disappointment. "Jecht, Auron is right. You must keep your drinking under control for the sake of this journey. The alcohol is distorting your ability to think, and out here, that could mean the difference between life and death."

"I can stop drinking any time I want," Jecht boasted.

"Then promise us that you will," Braska insisted.

"Okay, fine, promise," he growled, glaring at Auron.

Auron started to say something else, but Braska held up a hand to interrupt. "If we are to succeed, we need to work together as a team … as friends. None of us are perfect, and it does none of us any good to focus each others' faults. I want no enmity between us. That is the only thing that would be sacrilege here. Jecht has promised he would stop drinking. We will accept his word on the matter and refrain from insults."

Auron pressed his lips together but accepted the reprimand with a slight bow of apology. "I'm sorry, sir."

"And, please, no need to call me sir. I'd rather my guardians be friends than mercenaries," Braska added.

The young warrior monk nodded and cast a glance toward the blitzball player, before setting down his almost empty jug and turning his attention to making the spit to roast their kill.

Jecht grabbed a large knife from the supplies and removed the animals from Braska's staff to begin dressing them for cooking.

After removing his formal headdress, Braska also removed his heavy robe and offered it to Jecht. "This can warm you until the fire is sufficient."

Jecht saw what he was offering and shook his head. "Nah, I couldn't."

"I insist. We're heading south into warmer territory, but I should have thought to purchase you some new clothing before we left Bevelle." He held out his hand for the knife.

Jecht reluctantly passed the knife to the summoner and slipped into the heavy, layered robes. The warmth made him shudder. "Thanks … and sorry. I was thinking too deeply about things at home, I guess. And, Auron … I didn't mean to drink all your nog. Tasty stuff, though," he added, trying to break the tension with humor.

Auron paused in his task, but kept his attention on it, responding only with a small nod.

"Understandably, you are concerned about your family." Braska once more bound his sleeves out of his way and began to prepare their catch.

"Well, it's … more than all this. I was having contract disputes with my managers before I left." Jecht couldn't bring himself to admit that he had hit his wife. "They said I was getting too old to play. Said I needed to retire. I'm thirty-five. Since when is that old? Ask anyone who their favorite blitz player is. They'll tell you, 'Jecht!' Everyone knows me there. I worked hard to be on top!" Jecht shook his head and sat down on the log near the fire. "I've been playing professionally since I was seventeen. I've broken every record. So what if I'm not breaking records anymore? They're my records, damn it! I'm still the best!" He paused. "But what does that say about you when the team you gave your whole life to decides to let you go? It says ... time to quit. But I'm not ready to quit. I've still got a lot of good plays left in me."

"It sounds discouraging," Braska sympathized, listening as he worked. "But drinking won't solve anything. Trying to escape your problems only makes them worse."

"I don't need your lectures, all right?" Jecht groused. "I said I would stop drinking."

"No lectures. Just logic ... and concern from a friend." Braska noticed the sphere beside Jecht on the log. "Recording again?"

"Yeah. Something for my boy." Jecht looked at it for a long, thoughtful moment. "Something to let him know ... I'm proud of him, you know? Just in case ..."

The spit was finished, so Auron came near to wait for the finished animals. "A boy needs to hear words like that from his father."

Jecht was surprised at the change in the warrior monk's tone. Rising from the log, he picked up the memory sphere and strode to the edge of the spring. Braska stood and passed the first of the animals to Auron with a nod of gratitude. Then, he looked toward Jecht, who hesitated, then dropped the sphere into the lake with a small splash.


	29. Chapter 29: Tainted Aeon

Chapter 29: Tainted Aeon

Auron set a glass of white liquid on the table.

Jecht leaned forward with suspicion. "What's that?"

"Shoopuff milk." Auron sat down across from him at the cafe in Luca. "Remember when you got drunk and attacked that Shoopuff at the moonflow? You swore off alcohol _again_ and said this was the only thing you'd drink from now on. So, you made a promise, and this time you're keeping it."

"I didn't think they actually _made_ this stuff."

"Well, they do. So, drink up."

Frowning at Auron, Jecht pulled the glass closer and sniffed it with distaste. "How about some tea instead?"

Auron smirked. "You made a promise, and you're not getting out of it."

Braska returned with a tray full of food and dispensed it between his friends and himself before sitting down, but among the items he set on the table were two more glasses of shoopuff milk.

Auron's smirk faded as Braska pushed one in front of him.

"I never made Yuna take medicine or eat something that I couldn't swallow myself," Braska announced with a grin. "I will treat my guardians with no less respect than my own flesh and blood. And this is how we can offer Jecht our support." He lifted his own glass of shoopuff milk to make a toast. "In celebration of our victory over the fiends on Mi'ihen High Road and Jecht staying sober since the Moonflow."

Jecht chuckled in low amusement at Auron's lack of enthusiasm about the drink now. Lifting his glass, he gave it a shake in front of the warrior monk's nose. "Drink up."

With a sigh, Auron reluctantly picked up his glass and clinked it against the other two.

All three men took a mouthful of their refreshment.

Auron winced at the taste and glanced at Jecht.

The blitzball player was on the verge of spitting it back out.

The two of them looked to Braska, who swallowed, but no longer seemed composed.

Auron figured that was enough to forgo his manners and set the glass back down.

Jecht coughed his mouthful back into the glass.

And Braska tried to wipe his mouth out with a napkin.

But their unanimous reactions made the lord summoner start laughing, which made his guardians laugh as well.

"That is the most god-awful stuff I _ever_ drank!" Jecht declared.

Auron made a face. "Tastes like … thick, sour beans."

"How about some _tea_," Jecht suggested again, giving him a told-ya-so expression.

Braska, anxious to get the flavor out of his mouth, reached for his bowl of noodles. "Tea would be wonderful, Jecht."

The blitzball player stood, smacked the back of Auron's head for trying to make him drink the foul stuff in the first place, and headed to the counter to ask for three teas.

Braska chuckled over his noodles at the reluctant camaraderie that was growing between his two guardians and pinched half of a sliced egg between his chopsticks. "He's making progress, don't you think?"

"If you want to call a broken window, a beat-up shoopuff, and nearly getting us killed by a chocobo eater 'progress.'" Auron took a big bite from his inarizushi, glad to get the sour taste out of his mouth with something sweet.

The summoner chuckled again. "Well, Jecht seems to have taken our mission to heart now, even if he doesn't know as much about it as one would think, living in Zanarkand."

"Do you still believe him?"

"I have no reason not to until I see otherwise with my own eyes. It is strange, though. I can't help but wonder if he came to us through some sort of ... divine means."

"Jecht? Divine?" Auron snorted. "That's more than a little contradictory."

Braska smiled so that his eyes nearly squinted shut. "Is it? He knows nothing of the rest of Spira or Sin, so that makes him fearless and free in a way we can only envy. Concerning Zanarkand, he has intimate knowledge of a mystery that most of us only know through myth and legend. But more than that, he came exactly when we needed him." Braska dipped a small bunch of thinly sliced fresh vegetables in the spicy sauce pooling at the bottom of his noodles. "I feel he is a good omen. It's as if our paths were meant to cross—as if Yevon truly is looking after us."

Auron could hardly picture the great spirit of Yevon selecting someone as crass as Jecht to grace them with divine intervention. Still, he had to agree the circumstances were highly unusual.

"I can't help but wonder if the key to a future without Sin lies buried in the past. I may be leading this pilgrimage, but in truth, I feel compelled to follow him."

"No offense, but do you think that's wise, sir?"

"If we want to know how to defeat an ancient spirit, it makes sense to learn from an ancient spirit."

"If Jecht is an ancient spirit, wouldn't that make him an unsent?"

"I don't believe so. He's too real to be a ghost, and he doesn't feed on vengeance the way unsent spirits and fiends do. Quite the opposite. He enjoys laughter and fun. And so do I. And didn't I ask you to stop calling me 'sir'?" Braska mildly scolded.

"Sorry, My Lord. Old habits die hard."

The summoner laughed. "So it would seem, Auron. So, it would seem."

Jecht returned, balancing three tall glasses of ice-cold tea between his hands, and set them in the center of the table before swiping one for himself and sitting down again. He drank nearly half the glass all in one continuous gulp. "Ahhhh! Much better."

Braska swallowed a mouthful as well. "Jecht, there's a blitzball stadium near the docks here in Luca. Would you like to see a game before we depart for Kilika?"

Jecht reached into his travel bag for a new sphere. "A Luca blitzball game, huh? I just hope they're good enough that I don't have to show 'em how it's done."

))((

In Besaid Village, after Braska successfully gained Valefor's aeon, the weak summoner leaned on the warrior monk's shoulder as they left the temple and headed down the dirt road between the small huts toward the village gates. "Lord Braska, are you sure you don't want to rest in the lodge?" Auron asked.

"There's time for the lodge tonight. Right now, I want to see the beach and enjoy the sun," the tired summoner answered, wiping the heavy sweat from his brow and tugging the blue hood beneath his headdress loose. He looked as if he were going to pass out in this heat if he didn't catch a cool breeze soon.

A blitzball suddenly flew toward Braska, but Jecht was quick to catch it. "Hey! Watch where you're throwing this thing!" he fussed at a group of young boys playing in the middle of the road as they passed. "You almost hit the summoner!"

"Uh, sorry 'bout that!" The oldest boy in the group—a boy with flame-colored hair—apologized. Turning, he scowled at a younger boy who also had flame-colored hair. "Chappu, you bonehead! You almost hit a summoner!" The older boy grasped the younger one about the neck and dragged him toward Lord Braska.

"Wakka! Lemme go! It was an accident!" Chappu protested.

"It doesn't matter, ya? Dad used to say always apologize when you hurt someone, even if you didn't mean to."

"You're not Dad!" Chappu tried to escape his big brother's headlock, but when he was deposited him in front of the exhausted summoner and saw how weak he looked, he bowed in apology with his brother. "We're sorry, sir," Chappu offered in a small, sincere voice.

Braska smiled at the boys. "Quite all right. Better than breaking someone's expensive window, right? At least the ball can bounce off of me." He cast a humored glance to Jecht before allowing Auron to continue leading him toward the beach.

Jecht cleared his throat. "Well, uh, anyway, be more careful next time." He spun the ball around his wrist, volleyed the ball through a few moves, and then flicked it into the air behind his shoulder. A stupefied Wakka caught the ball, and the professional blitzball player walked away, grinning to himself at the astonished looks on the boys' faces.

))((

When they arrived on the beach, Auron released Braska so that both of them could sit down in the sand at the edge of the tide and watch the sunset on the water's horizon. Braska removed his headdress and shoes, then immediately peeled out of his heavy, formal attire, down to his light linen clothing. It was as if removing his robes of office removed the heavy burden of his pilgrimage from his shoulders for a moment.

Jecht watched the drained summoner with concern as he lay his head on the robes and closed his eyes to cool off and bask in the last of the sun's rays. This was Braska's fifth summoning, and while he claimed it had been easier than any of the rest, it was clear that each progressive summoning was requiring more magical energy than the one before it. Perhaps that was why past summoners never returned; it took too much out of them. Barefoot and wading a few steps forward into the undulating waves, the blitzball player began picking shells out of the wet sand.

))((

Copying the summoner, Auron removed his coat and boots and rolled up the cuffs of his pants in a fruitless effort to keep the sand out of his clothes. Then, he pushed his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose and pulled a sphere from his pocket. "Where should we tuck this one for safekeeping?"

Braska looked at it for a long moment before deciding. "Near the temple. I'm sure that will be an easy place for you to find it when you return with Yuna." His gaze returned to the ocean, where Jecht was skipping shells across the water. "This is a much more peaceful place than Bevelle. It suits her quiet nature, so I know she'll like living here. And the children are nice, so maybe she'll make some good friends. It sounded as if those two boys lost their father, so Sin must have already struck here. It looks like the island has had a little time to rebuild." Braska shook his head at the tragedy. "Too many lost fathers and mothers taken, while another generation of children is left to raise themselves. If I needed anything else to remind me why we're doing this … this is it."

Jecht brushed the clumps of sand from a shell he was fingering. Then, he pitched it beyond the tide and watched it skip three times. Each time the shell touched the water, it forced the surface to bend and ripple. The blitzball pro was in his element here, and yet he was gazing forlornly at the surf rather than diving into it.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet this evening, Jecht," Braska commented, breaking the silence.

"Just thinking." He pitched another shell and watched the ripples skid across the surface again.

"About what?"

Jecht pinched the remaining shell in his hand and studied it. "Sin brought me here. Sin may be the only way for me to go back. Maybe I have to touch it again."

Auron shook his head and rubbed a hand over a taught, sore arm muscle. "Sin's toxin is too dangerous, never mind the danger of getting close enough to touch it."

"I don't see that I have any other choice. But even if I do find a way back, Zanarkand is doomed. If Sin doesn't get it, the war will. Going home to tell my wife and kid that the city's going to be blown to ruins ... That's not much of a homecoming, you know?"

Braska sat upright, concerned. "Don't tell me you're giving up on going home. You're not giving up on your family, are you?"

Jecht pitched the shell, watched it skip, and then faced them. "No, but if I use Sin to go home … maybe I could grab my wife and kid and bring them here. It might not save them from Sin, but it will at least save them from the war. I think they'd like this place. Well, parts of it anyway. My wife would enjoy shopping in Luca, and my boy would probably love to kick a ball around on this beach and ride a shoopuff. When we find Sin again, do you guys think you could delay killing it until I can get them out?"

Braska sympathized but shook his head. "If Sin strikes down the Final Aeon because we're holding back, we may lose our only chance at defeating it. If the Final Aeon gets banished, I can't summon it again until it has rested. It's a one-time shot. I'm sorry, Jecht."

Jecht nodded at that logic. "Yeah. Stupid idea, I guess."

"Nothing stupid about it," Braska countered, despite having to turn it down. After a moment of thought, he draped an elbow over one knee. "I believe you should try it. I'm just not sure I can compromise the Final Aeon for one family, knowing all of Spira is at stake."

"Understood." Jecht picked up and skipped one final shell. This one promptly sank.

))((

"Still watching Jecht, I see?" Valefor sat down beside Bahamut in the sand.

Bahamut tried to dig into the sand between them, but his fingers made no contact. "Braska has all the main temples' aeons now. All he has left to find are the hidden ones. There's just one thing that concerns me. Jecht wants to touch Sin again to go home. And Braska is encouraging him to try it."

"You can't blame Jecht for wanting to go home."

"No, but if Jecht goes home, and Braska chooses Auron as his Final Aeon, this will all have been in vain. Braska has known Auron longer, so his bond with him is stronger, and Auron is more likely to volunteer. Maybe I should talk to Braska and let him know his hunch about Jecht being a divine summoning was correct, so he'll pick him."

"No. Remember what Shiva said? We can't force Braska to pick Jecht, and we can't force Jecht to volunteer. Our Fayth must be a willing servant of the summoner, just like us. We can't risk tainting the sacrifice with any negative emotions. Yevon's hate is strong enough to conjure Sin without us giving him an aeon already tainted with revenge."

Bahamut frowned as he watched the three men, each immersed in his own private thoughts while watching the sunset. The way Braska leaned on Auron while coming out of the temple, the boy couldn't help but fear that the summoner's close friendship with the warrior monk might ruin everything.

))((

As Braska's party passed the wall of the Fayth Scar on their way into Zanarkand, they paused to marvel at the morbid wonder. Jecht reached to touch the glowing magic, but Braska caught his hand. "It is probably not wise to disturb the Fayth."

"What happened to them?" Jecht asked.

"Like all Fayth, they gave their lives to save others."

"But … what's that magic streaming out of them into the sky?"

"It looks like they're summoning something," Braska suggested, but was just as puzzled as Jecht. "What could they be summoning?"

Auron absently thumbed the slight beard growth under his chin. "The Final Aeon?"

Braska shook his head. "That would be my job."

"Maybe something is summoning them," Jecht countered.

With a disturbed expression, Braska studied the magic seals over the stone. But unable to make sense of it, he moved on, leading the way down into the ruins of Zanarkand. Auron followed close, keeping an eye out for fiends. Jecht lingered a moment longer, gazing at the bodies trapped in stone, searching the faces carefully. Then, sighing with relief when none of them looked familiar, he fell into step behind his other two companions.

As their champion walked away, some of the Fayth rose from their tomb and gathered along the pass. All eyes were on the trio heading toward the Zanarkand ruins. The time had come to see if their elaborate trick could defeat Yevon.

))((

Kaila closed her eyes and entered the dream to meet Bahamut on the houseboat. "They're here. Braska is ready to seek the Final Aeon," she informed him. Then, having delivered her message, she opened her eyes again and stepped forward among the others to follow Jecht down into the ruins to which he could never return. She accompanied the trio into the lost city and through the fallen temple to the last chamber of the Fayth on their journey, but then hid from Lady Yunalesca, behind one of the cracked columns.

As had been the case for over nine hundred years, the summoner and his guardians registered disappointment and dread upon learning the truth about the final stage of the ritual. It had been understood that Braska would sacrifice himself, but they had not realized the Fayth for the Final Aeon had to be one of his guardians. Braska faced his two friends, unable to find words, but his pain at having to make such a cruel decision was written all over his face. They had both fought so hard to protect him on their journey. They had both become his friends. How could he sacrifice either one? This wasn't justice; it was eternal damnation. Still, if it was the only hope that Spira had for a time of Calm ...

Bahamut ran into the temple and found Kaila. "What did I miss?"

"Sssh! Lady Yunalesca might hear you. Braska and the others just found out there is no Final Aeon."

The boy saddened. "Did he choose yet?"

Kaila shook her head. "I hate this part."

Bahamut nodded in morose agreement but watched anxiously as Braska started to follow Lady Yunalesca's apparition into the Final Summoning Chamber.

Then, Auron's resolve broke. He pleaded with Braska to turn back. Braska stopped at the bottom of the stairs but didn't turn around to face his guardians. Patient as always, but obviously struggling, he reminded them that if they _could_ defeat Sin, no one else would have to bear this burden ever again. Auron insisted they try to think of another solution, but Jecht could see that Auron's pleas were only making Braska's difficult decision harder.

Jecht finally broke his silence. "Make me the Fayth."

Braska and Auron froze.

"I been doing some thinking," Jecht explained. "My dream is back in the other Zanarkand. I wanted to make that runt a star blitz player. Show him the view from the top, you know. But now I know there's no way home for me. I'm never going to see him again. My dream's never gonna come true. So make me the Fayth. I'll fight Sin with you, Braska. Then maybe my life will have meaning, you know."

Bahamut and Kaila exhaled with relief, not realizing they'd been holding their breath. Their defiant, arrogant illusion had volunteered to do something selfless.

The disillusioned monk resumed his protests, reminding them that if Sin came back, no matter what, their deaths would mean nothing.

Braska, humbled by Jecht's offer, thanked him for volunteering and reminded Auron that the teachings of Yevon promised an Eternal Calm someday.

Jecht had never followed Yevon's teachings, though, not even in the Zanarkand of the past. "I understand what you're saying, Auron. I'll find a way to break the cycle."  
As the doors of the Final Summoning Chamber slammed shut behind Jecht and Braska, Auron dropped to his knees, squeezing his eyes tight against what he felt at this betrayal. He was utterly unable to accept this outcome, now that they were here. And yet, his friends were determined to fight. Therefore, he had to continue with determination, too. Auron made himself stand and followed them through the chamber. Then, he knelt behind them and apologized for having protested. Braska's words consoled him, but Jecht asked for one final favor. "Take care of my son."

Though Auron had no idea how he would get to Jecht's Zanarkand, let alone find his son, he agreed. "All right, I will. I give you my word. I'll take care of your son. I'll guard him with my life."

Bahamut and Kaila followed Braska and Jecht further into the chamber as the final doors closed behind them, but rose high above and behind the temple ceiling to keep their distance from Lady Yunalesca.

After all this time, the powerful, unsent spirit still maintained her duty to her father, defending his honor as she spoke promising, but empty, words about giving Spira hope. After almost a thousand years, her unsent vigil and recitation of the sleep spell had become rote, but her dedication to preserving these routine sacrifices to pacify her father's rage had intensified. Even when Zaon's soul was freed, and he begged her to return to the Farplane with him, Yunalesca continued collecting the souls of summoners and their guardians to keep her father calm. Yet as she cast the transformation spells on Jecht, something happened that caught everyone by surprise.

The guardian's physical body should have collapsed to the ground and been absorbed into Zaon's seal. Instead, Jecht's body faded into pyreflies, which dispersed, but then swirled back together into the form of a spirit. For a second, the spirit blurred into something that looked like Jecht, but then the pyreflies swarmed into Braska with force. The overwhelmed summoner drew a sharp breath and fell forward to his knees.

Lady Yunalesca blinked and froze.

Kaila gasped, but Bahamut cupped a hand over her mouth so as not to give away their presence.

Braska fought to catch his breath, then sorrowfully reached for Jecht, but he, too, was confused about why no mortal body remained. "Where is the statue that will honor his sacrifice? Why is there still no Fayth?" After a long moment, Auron was at his side, helping him stand, and the summoner once more had to lean on his friend's strong shoulder as ancient, powerful magic flowed through him.

Yunalesca confronted them with anger and worry. "Tell me you didn't give me some kind of unsent soul to create a tainted Fayth!"

"My Lady, I did not know who our friend truly was, but we will do our best to honor whatever gift he has given to us." Braska bowed to the unsent summoner before taking his leave with his remaining guardian to begin the end of his journey: the return to the Calm Lands to fight Sin.

Angered and uncertain about what had just happened, Yunalesca flew out of the summoning chamber ahead of them.

Once they were alone, Kaila pulled Bahamut's hand from her mouth. "He had a soul! How could an illusion have a soul? Did we create another Jecht when we made him real?"

"I don't know what happened, but we'd better alert the others that something changed. Come on!" Bahamut and Kaila flew back to the Fayth Scar to report what they had witnessed. No one knew what to make of the fact that Jecht's illusion had a soul, but the general consensus was foreboding. The entire gathering of Fayth moved to the top of Mt. Gagazet to await the battle between Sin and Braska's Final Aeon.

))((

Auron supported Braska all the way back through the treacherous mountain pass, stopping only to rest through the night for a few hours during the deepest darkness. They said nothing to each other. Words seemed too profane for this sacred silence.

The next day, they continued through the unseen gathering of spirits and down into the Calm Lands below. There, the summoner stopped and gave his remaining guardian a hug.

"This is far enough, friend. Tell Yuna ... I love her."

"Lord Braska ..."

The summoner gave a sad laugh. "Auron, please. 'Braska' will do." Then, he walked away to a safe distance and lifted his staff to cast the Final Summoning. "Jecht, this is it. Spira needs you."

Jecht's aeon broke through the ground at Braska's feet—a larger-than-life, muscular hulk with long, clawed hands, spikes, and horns. Except for the black Abes tattoo that still adorned his chest and the red headband in his now-bushy-white mane, he didn't look anything like the man he once was. Braska was rendered speechless but knew what had to be done next. Bowing before him, he cast Yunalesca's meditative spell that would allow his spirit could leave his own body. He bowed once to Auron in gratitude for his service and friendship. But then he melded with his aeon to fortify him with more potent magic.

Auron nearly fell to his knees at the horrific sight but made himself draw his sword and stand over Braska's vulnerable body, prepared to defend him to his last breath. Over the cliffs from Zanarkand, the lone guardian could see Sin flying into the vicinity, answering the call of Jecht's challenge.

))((

Bahamut watched as Jecht drew a flaming sword from his chest and took the initiative against Sin. The boy was awed by the spectacle of what they had created but still surprised that the illusion survived the transformation into the Final Aeon.

"The illusion wasn't supposed to have a soul," Kaila spoke her friend's thoughts.

"It didn't. You saw it. There was nothing there when Jecht's body faded."

"But then the pyreflies took Jecht's form again. I think ... we somehow summoned the real Jecht!"

Bahamut considered the possibility. What if they had indeed summoned an unsent soul as an aeon? What if they had created something worse than Sin?

Jecht's sword, followed by a blast of magic, broke apart Sin's exterior shell. The Fayth's aeon had won, but this was nothing out of the ordinary. They had seen this battle too many times to be impressed yet. The only thing that changed over the years was the shape of each new aeon that challenged Sin. The real fight had only just begun.

"Wait! Jecht's memories were in the dream," the boy realized. "He couldn't be unsent. Maybe he was summoned from the Farplane or something."

"That's better than being unsent, but that still means he might be the real Jecht, out there being summoned against his will," Kaila worried.

Jecht's aeon flew into the cracked shell to challenge Sin's heart, the possessed aeon of his predecessor. After a long wait, there was an explosion within the shell, and the aeon armor began to dissolve in a massive cloud of swarming pyreflies. Within that swarm, the twisted black mass that was once Yu Yevon hovered near Jecht for a moment. He seemed to suspect something different about this Final Aeon, but then he sent out multiple waves of mind control magic to possess it. Jecht's aeon roared in defiance and slashed at the black mass.

Bahamut could hardly believe his eyes. "It's working! He's resisting Yevon's magic! He's fighting back!"

The battle held the rapt attention of every Fayth gathered on the mountain top. Braska's Final Aeon continued to throw a fury of physical and magical attacks against Yu Yevon. Yevon was able to summon two pillar-like pagodas to heal himself after each round. Eventually, the new aeon's attacks became weaker, and Yevon shifted from healing to launching his own attacks, wearing the new aeon down until he was able to break through his defenses and possess him.

"NO!" Bahamut clenched his fists. "Resist it! Keep fighting!"

But as Braska's soul was ripped from the aeon's body, the summoner's body slumped to the ground at Auron's feet.

Jecht released one final roar of anguish before Yevon gained control and melded. After a long pause, Jecht's aeon flew out of sight, back to Zanarkand.

Bahamut flew down into the Calm Lands, where Auron grieved the loss of both friends. The summoner's spirit stared at the boy with disheartened exhaustion and dismay. "Lord Braska, you were … so close." He tried to sound encouraging despite his sadness and disappointment. "Thank you for trying."

Braska stared at the small boy with slow understanding. "Jecht was sent to us … by you?"

Bahamut lowered his head in disheartened shame. His plan had failed, and they had possibly trapped the real Jecht into a fate worse than death. They had actually helped to create the next bringer of death and destruction to Spira, and there was no telling how much stronger this one would be. "What have we done?" The boy buried his face in his hands and cried.

Braska set his hand on the small spirit's shoulder and watched Auron struggle with the same sense of failure. "You gave us friendship, laughter, and hope. You've helped us give Spira another Calm. And maybe you've given our children something much, much more. Thank you. Jecht promised to find a way to end the cycle. Please continue to believe in him." He lifted his chin toward the departing aeon that had once been his friend. "I still do."

))((

Ten years passed before Jecht rose from the depths of his long hibernation as the new Sin. He had not been strong enough to break free of Yevon's possessive magic, but he did manage to do something no human Fayth managed to do before him. He retained his sense of who he was. He was acutely aware of what he had become, and he hated it.

Kaila and Bahamut met on Jecht's houseboat seeking solace from the guilt that plagued them as they waited with dread for the cycle to begin again. What they didn't realize, as they stared at the weapon of their own making, is that they were not alone.

"You're not my wife and son," a gruff voice complained behind them.

The two Fayth jumped, startled, and turned around. Kaila gasped, then grinned. "Jecht! Is it really you? But I thought ... I thought—"

"Who are you and what are you doing on my boat?"

"I'm Kaila. Koji's sister? Shuyin's friend's sister?" She gently prodded his memory.

Jecht's surly mannerism turned into a grin. "_Little_ Kaila? Was I gone that long?"

Kaila winced. "Well, you died when I was seven. But then I died ten years later when Lord Yevon turned us into Fayth after the Machina War."

"Machina War … Yeah, I heard about that. That means my runt's probably as big as you are." He paused for an uneasy moment and looked around. "Is he … here? Anywhere?"

Kaila and Bahamut exchanged uncertain glances, wondering if they should tell him the fate of his son. Kaila gave her head a shake.

"Oh." Jecht lowered his gaze in disappointment. "My wife's in the Farplane, but I never found my boy. I was hoping he'd be here, but I guess that means he's still out there … somewhere."

"The last time we saw him, his spirit was looking for my sister," Bahamut answered. "His girlfriend."

"Girlfriend, huh?" Jecht chuckled with surprise. "Miss a thousand years of your kid's life, and he gets all grown-up on you." Then, he squinted at the boy, remembering. "You're the kid that spoke to me underwater in Bevelle. How did you …"

"I'm a Fayth, too. We're …. the ones who sent you to Lord Braska to help defeat Sin," he added with hesitation. "We never meant to disturb your rest. We just didn't want another summoner to die." Bahamut moved to the rail beside him. "I thought an illusion might break the cycle since it's made of Yevon's own magic and wasn't supposed to have a soul."

"Hm, good theory, kid. Shame it didn't work. Although, it kinda did, or I wouldn't be here."

"How _are_ you here?" Kaila drew near to his other side. "Illusions don't have souls. And you're Sin now. Plus, Yevon doesn't usually allow the Final Fayth to come into the dream or go anywhere else. He keeps it close, under his control."

"Ah, but I'm a tainted Fayth now. I drowned with my own selfish desires long before I volunteered to serve a summoner. Yevon hates that because it means he can't control me so easily. He's stronger than me, though. Eventually, he'll probably win. But I'm stubborn as hell, so I intend to give him a wild ride for his money."

Kaila smiled at his rebellion. "But … how did you get your soul back to become Braska's Final Aeon?"

The blitzball player leaned against the rail. "While I was in the Farplane, I started having these weird dreams about things that I don't remember ever really happening. But with all that talk about summoning, I wondered if someone had summoned me back to life. I was getting a new window on reality, so I figured I'd better pay attention to what was going on and why. When Yunalesca opened the portal between the Farplane and reality, I crossed over to help. I never met Braska and Auron during my real life, but it felt like we were old friends by the time I arrived, so I couldn't let them down. Then Braska was strong enough to actually pull me through. I kicked Sin's ass until Yevon kicked mine. So … here I am."

"We're really sorry for getting you into this mess," Kaila apologized. "I wish there was some way we could free you, but ... we can't even free ourselves."

Jecht's relaxed demeanor became serious as he folded his arms across his Abes-tattooed chest. "Then try again."

Bahamut shook his head. "It won't change anything. I thought not having a soul would reflect Yevon's magic or make it immune. Instead, the illusion fell apart when Yunalesca tried to turn it into a Fayth. If you hadn't come through when you did, Braska wouldn't have even had a Final Aeon. But as long as a soul is present, Yevon can possess it."

"But the fact that he's a tainted Fayth makes it harder for Yevon to control him," Kaila inserted. "There's got to be _some_ advantage in that."

"_Try again_," Jecht repeated. "I made a promise to Braska, guys. You gotta help me find a way to keep it. I have to break the cycle. No one else should have to die so that Yevon can live ... forever."

Kaila faced Bahamut and dared to reconsider the possibilities. "If we can find another dead soul to wrap in illusion, Jecht can take it out of the dream into reality, just like we did before. Only this time, we'll have two tainted Fayth! If the Final Aeon doesn't waste its strength fighting Sin in the first battle, it will be stronger to fight Yevon in the second. But who's soul should we pick this time? We already used our best choice."

"Why, thank you, my dear. I _am_ the best." Jecht winked with a mischievous grin.

That grin brought back a memory, and Kaila placed a hand on Bahamut's shoulder. "Shuyin," she decided.

Bahamut shook his head but didn't want to discuss why he disagreed.

Jecht didn't know what to think of that suggestion at first. The thought of having to fight his own son upset him. But then he nodded in agreement. "Alright. He always wanted a chance to even the score. I just hope the runt's up to it, or I could be stuck like this forever." The blitzball player grimaced, as if something unseen caused him pain. "Yevon's getting restless. He doesn't want me here, and he's probably going to keep me on a short leash as he gets more irritable. I don't know when I can come back, so listen up." His spirit began to flicker and fade. "We have a limited time to do this. Since Yevon woke up, he has started remembering what happened to Zanarkand. That means the Calm is almost over. Ask among the souls on the Farplane; someone somewhere has to know where my son was last seen. If you can find him and ask him to do this, I'll find a way to make it happen. In fact, I know someone else who can help. If we do this as a team, there's still a chance that we can take down Yevon!" he insisted before grimacing again and fading away.

Incredulous, Bahamut faced Kaila. "_Shuyin? _You saw what he was like the last time he came to Zanarkand. If he's unsent after all this time, there's no way that can be a good thing."

"The Shuyin we used to know would be perfect for this."

"But he's not the Shuyin we used to know!"

"He's not a fiend either!" Kaila chewed a thumbnail as she began to pace. "I _know_ him, Bahamut. Shuyin is out there somewhere, hating himself because he's unable to forgive himself for whatever happened to your sister. We need to find him." Leaving the deck, she headed for the Farplane.

Bahamut reluctantly followed, but he still didn't see how anything good could come of it.


	30. Chapter 30: The Unsent's Fayth

Chapter 30: The Unsent's Fayth

The Farplane's Abyss felt strange to the Fayth as he touched down in a meadow of blue and purple flowers. Bahamut felt an overwhelming urge to release his ghostly form and rest. But his soul was trapped elsewhere, anchored within reality and bonded to an eternal summoning by a magical seal that made rest impossible. The same was true for Kaila.

"I'm looking for a soul from Zanarkand." Kaila strolled through the flowers as she spoke to the unseen spirits around them. "His name is Shuyin, and he was unsent for a time, looking for another soul named Lenne. He was a blitzball player who died in the Machina War. Has anyone seen him in their travels?"

One of a few pyreflies that lazily drifted through the air turned toward Kaila, attracted more pyreflies, and became the spirit of Master Renuta. And he didn't look happy. "Shuyin didn't die in the war. He and his girlfriend were executed in Bevelle for trying to steal Vegnagun. _He_ is the one who sent me here, but he was wearing the body of another person. He has learned how to possess the living."

Kaila shook her head at the horrible news. "Possess the living?"

"Executed?" Bahamut echoed. "I thought they died in battle."

"She was captured. He tried to free her. I ordered their executions before they could use Vegnagun."

Bahamut's face pinched in anger and anguish. "_You_ killed my sister?"

"Yevon intended to turn her into an abomination. And Vegnagun would have killed many more. It is an unstable weapon that could endanger all of Spira. They had no business being there!"

Tsuran's spirit came forward. "I know of a spirit that once possessed the living. I'm the one he used to murder the maester, but I was killed in the attempt to capture him."

Shocked, Kaila shook her head again. "Shuyin would never murder anyone!"

Ambassador Guregohe appeared. "He killed me, too, point blank with a rifle."

Midoriha joined them. "I was the summoner who tried to send him. I sealed him in a cavern so that he could not escape, but he killed me and my guardians trying to find a way out."

Kaila and Bahamut suddenly found themselves surrounded by spirits who claimed to have been murdered by Shuyin. "He has remained unsent all these years?" Kaila whispered on the brink of tears. "I … I can't even imagine … Something like that would … It would crush him."

Bahamut looked to the summoner who trapped Shuyin's soul. "Where can I find this cavern?"

"Mushroom Rock Road," Midoriha told them. "If you seek him out, be careful. He has probably grown stronger and more resentful over time. He's probably completely transformed into a fiend by now. I deeply regret that I was unable to finish the sending. I wanted to help him, but he possessed me. And it was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced – not being able to control my own mind or body. Your friend is no ordinary spirit. The dark emotions that bind him to his former life have given him strange magic that can make him unusually real and tangible. The wards I placed in the cavern will turn malicious intent like that into chains but have no effect on spirits like the Fayth. If you seek him out, do not disturb any wards or barriers that have been put in place, or he could cause great harm before any living summoners can even attempt to send him."

))((

Bahamut stood alone outside the sealed door of the Den of Woe. Kaila had been so distraught at the news of Shuyin's murderous deeds and eternal imprisonment that Bahamut asked her to wait in the dream until he could assess their friend's condition. Even if they couldn't use him to create another tainted aeon, they were concerned for his welfare.

An intricate lock had been placed on the door to prevent humans from disturbing the spirit trap, but that presented no barrier to the Fayth. Drawing up his courage, he walked through the solid door, ancient seals, and holy water designed to repel malevolent spirits. None of it had any effect on him, but the gloomy darkness on the other side, lit only by a cloud of pyreflies, was an incredibly disheartening environment to enter. Scattered on the floor were a few burnt-out torches, the preserved skeletons of the summoner and his guardians who set the trap, and the weapons that failed to save them from the paranormal attack. All were covered in the dust of centuries past. Apparently, no living soul had disturbed this place for nearly a thousand years. "Shuyin?"

The pyreflies did not respond, but Bahamut could sense a dark presence lurking nearby.

The boy licked his lips and continued. "Kaila and I were looking for you in the Farplane, and someone there told us we could find you here. We were hoping your memories could help us make something in the dream more real." He turned a full circle in the darkness, looking for him.

"My memories are of use to no one. Leave me alone," a voice spoke through the pyreflies. The familiar voice came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Bahamut tentatively stretched a hand toward the pyreflies. "Your memories might be just what it takes to defeat Lord Yevon. He destroyed Bevelle in retaliation for what it did to Zanarkand, but his aeon, Sin, has continued destroying towns all over Spira ever since. The living are trapped in his cycle of death, so we've decided to try to help them end his rule in a different way. He makes the Fayth summon a dream Zanarkand, and we think his own magic from that dream might be able to resist and defeat him. Kaila and I figured out a way to make an illusion from the dream real. Well, not _really_ real, but real like an aeon. So, we need to make another dream guardian to send to a real summoner, so he can be made into the Final Aeon to fight Sin and Lord Yevon. Jecht was the first, but it's too much for him to handle alone. We wanted the second one to be you, but … you have to be at rest in the Farplane for it to work."

A long pause ensued before an answer came. "Not interested."

"You'd rather stay here? Like this?" Bahamut was startled by Shuyin's sudden manifestation amid the pyreflies but relieved to see that he still looked like himself, rather than having turned into a monster.

"Who said _anything_ about wanting to stay like this?" the blitzball player bitterly returned. "I never wanted this. I was trapped here against my will. How did you even get in?"

Bahamut backed away from Shuyin's glare and was reluctant to answer. "The summoner who set the wards said it's your own dark emotions that keep you here. If you could let go of whatever negative feelings are keeping you here, you could rest."

"I'm not resting until I've found Lenne."

"You won't find her in here."

Shuyin closed the few steps between them and lowered his voice to a sinister whisper. "Someday, some fool will open that door, the seal will be broken, and I will be free."

"It's been almost a thousand years—"

"Has it?" Shuyin laughed softly with hollow emotion. "Time means nothing to me anymore. I have all the time in the world to search until I find her."

As dark as Shuyin's heart had become, Bahamut couldn't help but admire the strength of the guardian's devotion. A thousand years, and he had not given up hope. That was the kind of determination they needed to defeat Yevon. "If you had a second chance, would you do things differently?"

"Don't you think I've wondered what would have happened if I had found the exit corridor? Or if I had hidden in the shadows with her instead of trying to use Vegnagun? Or maybe if I had just been quicker at giving the commands? If I had done just _one_ thing differently, maybe she could have lived!"

"Shuyin, if you let go of the guilt and rest, we could offer you a second chance at life through the dream."

The malevolent spirit calmed. "You could help me save her?"

Bahamut noticed the pyreflies at the core of the unsent soul glowed with more intensity now than they did before. "We can't change what's already happened, but we can try to save someone else."

"I don't want to save anyone else! Everything I did, I did for Lenne!" Turning away, Shuyin paced with a disquieted urgency. "If I could do it over, the only thing I'd want is to get her out of Bevelle!" The spirit stopped pacing and grimaced, clutching his head. "They just keep shooting her. And she just keeps crying. And I can't stop it. I can't do anything to help!" Falling to his knees, distraught and in pain, he lifted his chin, watching a memory only he could see. "And it never ends," he added with a broken whisper followed by a tear. "It never ends."

Ghostly images appeared in the pyreflies—Shuyin's memories of his and Lenne's final moments and death played out for Bahamut to see. Her execution was shocking and emotionally wrenching for both of them. But the memory didn't fade when it ended. It started over. The boy clenched his teeth through his tears and turned away rather than watch his sister die again. "Turn it off!"

Shuyin froze the pyreflies and reached to touch Lenne's face, but his ghostly fingers passed through the phantom memory. "I can't."

"I don't want to see it again!" Bahamut cried and covered his eyes.

"I see it every day, all the time." As Shuyin stood, his memories continued around him like accelerated flashes of light. "Lenne and I were unarmed, but it didn't matter. They shot us anyway." The blitzball player circled the boy to stand before him. "Zanarkand wanted to be left alone, but it didn't matter. Bevelle attacked us anyway. Solving problems peacefully doesn't accomplish anything because if peaceful people put down their weapons, they end up conquered by aggressors. The only way for Spira to know peace is to purge the aggressors, but whoever purges the aggressors _becomes_ an aggressor. Whoever wants to kill monsters, must become a stronger monster. That is the _true_ cycle of death. Killing Yu Yevon won't end the madness … but killing Spira will." His expression and voice were void of emotion as he leaned forward, hands-on-knees, eye-to-eye with his young friend. "When Spira is gone, only then can all of us truly rest."

The calm, quiet manner in which Shuyin confessed those calculated thoughts sent a chill down Bahamut's spine.

"On second thought, maybe I am interested in your offer." Shuyin straightened. "Lord Yevon was next on my list because he's the one that sent Lenne out there to die in the first place. Get me out of here, and I'll help you take him down."

Bahamut badly wanted Shuyin's aid. But not like this. "Not unless you agree to be sent."

"I _am not resting_ until I find Lenne," Shuyin firmly repeated.

"I can't send an unsent guardian to a summoner," Bahamut answered, drying his tears.

"So, after offering me freedom and a chance to make things right, you're going to just walk away and leave me imprisoned here?" The malevolent spirit grabbed the boy's arm. "I don't think so."

Bahamut gasped at how real and strong Shuyin's hold was. Panicked about what the unsent spirit might be capable of doing to him, the boy shifted into his dragon form. The dragon spirit wasn't nearly as strong as a fully manifested aeon summoned into reality, but it was larger and stronger than the spirit of a human. Grabbing Shuyin's shoulder to hold him in place, Bahamut thrust his hand through the blitzball player's chest and grasped his soul.

Shuyin cried out and tried to push the dragon's hand away, but the pain was too great.

Bahamut could sense the light and dark emotions in his friend's torn soul. The light half still hoped to escape, find Lenne, and rest in peace—a testimony to Shuyin's perseverance, faith, and optimism. But the dark half had been poisoned with hatred, resentment, and helplessness so thick and tangible Bahamut had only one other experience like it—Sin. Giving his "big brother" an apologetic look, the dragon used his talons to sever a small portion of the lighter half of Shuyin's soul. Then he quickly transformed back into a boy and ran for the warded door.

Shuyin ran after him, but the glyphs repelled him, conjuring magical chains that caught his wrists and ankles. The malevolent spirit shouted with rage as he pulled his chains taut and strained against them. "I won't forget this, Bahamut! When I'm free again, so help me, I'll find you!"

On the other side of the door, the frightened boy looked down through his tears at the small, glowing cluster of pyreflies in his hand. The tiny sliver of Shuyin's soul had passed through the wards, so Bahamut knew it was free of Sin's toxin. Maybe it would be enough to accomplish their goal. Maybe in time, it could grow. But for Shuyin, losing even a little hope probably felt like being entombed a second time. "Forgive me, Shu," Bahamut whispered to the angry spirit threatening him behind the warded door. Then, drying his tears again, the boy carried the captured pyreflies back to the dream.

))((

With sad disbelief, Kaila stared at the small glow Bahamut transferred gently into her hands. "This is all that's left of him?"

"No, it's just a few pyreflies from the deeper part of his soul. But we can't use Shuyin's memories, since he refuses to enter the Farplane and rest. And we can't risk giving an unsent guardian to a summoner." Bahamut lowered his voice, as if afraid of being overheard by the cluster of pyreflies cupped between them. "He wants to destroy Spira, Kaila."

"We can't let him use the dream illusion to free himself so he can hurt more people."

"I know. But I thought … Maybe if we fuse our own memories with these pyreflies that absorbed more of who he is at his essential core ..."

"If this is part of him, wouldn't it also be unsent?"

"Technically, yes. But it passed through the protective wards, so it's not tainted with the feelings of revenge that are keeping him chained."

"What if he can reclaim it? Jecht had dreams in the Farplane about what his illusion was doing in reality. If Shuyin dreams about what his illusion is doing in reality, he might be able to reconnect with it and enter reality the same way Jecht did. We'll have to find some way to disconnect them ... permanently … if that's even possible."

Bahamut paced and gave it some thought. "Jecht's illusion had no soul, but we used his memories. This illusion will have a bit of Shuyin's soul, but it will be made from our memories. But you're right; we should make sure Shuyin's soul can't feed his own memories into it."

"Maybe we could ripple the dream enough to erase Shuyin's memories, or at least rearrange them. Jecht forgot that he drowned until I mentioned it. He didn't actually lose the memory, but when we changed his pattern to live beyond his point of death, the new stuff covered it up."

"But we don't want to cover up all of Shuyin's bad memories. Some bad experiences help us grow stronger and shape us into who we are," Bahamut reminded her.

Kaila looked again at the seed of light cradled in her hands. "True. There is at least one painful memory he must keep to prevent him from turning out like Lady Yunalesca. His hate and resentment toward his dad must stay completely in-tact ... because of what he has to do." She saddened for their new illusion, though he wasn't even created yet. "He's going to have to kill his own father, Bahamut. Poor, Shu. I wish he could start over somehow and have a better life the second time around, you know?"

Bahamut stopped scrutinizing the ground and lifted his chin. "Maybe he can. Maybe if we back up far enough, we can rewrite his story. How old was he when you first met?"

She smiled, remembering. "Four. Shuyin, Koji, and I took our first swim lessons together, but he cried because he was afraid of the water."

He blinked at that unlikely claim. "Shuyin? Afraid of water? You're kidding."

Kaila laughed. "I'll show you." Together they went to the community pool, and Kaila recalled her memory of her first meeting with Shuyin.

Just as Jecht and his son arrived, however, Bahamut stopped time. "Let's put his soul in this memory and see what happens. Oh, and you should probably remove yourself and your brother from the picture. I'll remove myself and Lenne if we make it that far. Shuyin's loyalty is so strong that his relationships here might interfere with the illusion's ability to form attachments in reality. He might try to come home, like Jecht did, rather than doing whatever it takes to protect his summoner and any new friends out there."

Kaila sighed. "This is going to be harder than I thought, but I suppose you're right." After removing herself and her brother from the projected memory, she crouched in front of little Shuyin and smiled at how sweet he looked back then. However, the fragile cluster of magic in her hand puzzled her. "I can summon pyreflies to recall memories, but … I don't know anything about summoning souls."

"Let me try." Bahamut had no memories of Shuyin at this age, but he knew a little about how to call souls and shape pyreflies, thanks to the apprentice training and natural talent he had before he died. Taking the soul seed from her, he suspended it above the head of the small boy from Kaila's memory. Then, he gently moved the pyreflies from Shuyin's real soul down into the pyreflies of the illusion and cast a summoning spell to fuse them together.

Kaila moved to stand before her memory once more but was puzzled again. "Something's … different. It looks like him, but it's not exactly him. He's still Shuyin, right?"

Bahamut studied the slightly new features of the soul-infused illusion. "I don't know," he admitted. "It's your memory. Did my magic change it? Or maybe you don't remember him as good as you thought you did."

"Pfft!" Kaila frowned, hands-on-hips. "Nothing's wrong with my memory. I remember everything about him, right down to his freckles."

"Freckles?" Bahamut made a face and took a closer look at the little boy's face. Shuyin's nose and cheeks were lightly dusted with tiny freckles. "Huh." After giving Kaila a curious glance, which embarrassed her enough to make her step back, he released his hold on time and watched the boy walked through them to sign in with the swim instructor.

When Jecht was done speaking with the instructor, he crouched before the boy. "Do what she says, and no crying. I mean it. You're the king of the tidal waves, remember? King Tidus! Compared to tides, pools are easy. I'll be sitting over there." He took the boy's towel, gave his back a light push, and slapped his backside to send him on his way." Then, he headed to the benches near the wall where the other parents were seated.

The small boy watched his dad leave. Then, head hung low, he walked to the end of the line formed by other children sitting along the side of the pool and sat down by himself.

The rest of the lesson followed as Kaila remembered it, and Bahamut was amused to see just how much the future blitzball star used to fear water. However, this time no one offered little Shuyin candy when he was done. No one befriended him. And he walked away from the lesson shaken, rather than hopeful. "He looks so lonely and resentful," she commented as father and son left.

"It can't be helped. Not with Jecht." Bahamut stopped time to take another look at the little boy's face. "But he's acting like a four-year-old, rather than a trapped, unsent spirit." He smiled as he marveled at their creation. "Do you realize what this means?"

"It means we _can _alter a soul's memories, just like an illusion's."

"It means he's almost a whole new person! He looks different, acts different, will have different memories—"

"We can't make a new person out of Shuyin's soul," Kaila protested. "Our souls are the essence of who we are. Besides, we want him to retain his sense of self so he can resist Yevon."

"He's still Shuyin deep down. This is just a ... a new version of him. A neo-genesis!"

"Neo-what?" She didn't like the sound of that.

"Shuyin's pattern is still there because it's his soul, but we can give him new memories—a whole new beginning—rather than making him pick up where he died, like what happened with Jecht."

"But ... it will take a long time for Shuyin to live his life all over again. And we don't have much time before Sin starts picking targets again."

"We can use the time flow to speed things up a bit." Bahamut released time to see if any other ripples had been created due to their subtle alteration.

"Let's go, Tidus!" Jecht impatiently growled.

The boy balanced on one prune-wrinkled foot to inspect the bottom of the other for a moment.

"Any day now!" He called again in warning.

The boy ran on his toes across the rough tile to the door where his dad was waiting, and they exited the building together.

"Tidus," Kaila repeated the nickname his father had called him. "If he is someone new and different, he deserves a new name."

"Agreed. We can ripple the dream to erase all references to Shuyin and replace them with Tidus," Bahamut suggested.

Kaila smiled, but then her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh my gosh! I just realized my memories stop after they leave the pool! If we lose the illusion, will we lose his soul, too?"

Bahamut hadn't considered the continuity problem with working out of Kaila's memories, rather than Shuyin's. Both of them ran out of the building, anxious to see if Shuyin's soul disappeared with his illusion, but to their surprise, Jecht and Tidus were both existing beyond her memory. Father and son stepped inside the transport to go home.

"I don't understand." Kaila was mystified. "How …"

"Shuyin's soul is supplying his own memories." Bahamut realized this was what they feared. "We'll definitely need to keep an eye on Tidus to make sure he remains a separate person."

"So, if he starts remembering he's Shuyin, we're in trouble, right?"

Bahamut remembered the way the unsent spirit threatened him and nodded in uneasy agreement. "Big trouble."

))((

Auron's ghost stood alone on the coast of the Zanarkand ruins and watched as Sin basked silently in the calm seas. "It's been ten long years," he spoke as he strode into the water. "But I haven't forgotten." Diving into the waves, he swam toward the beast, determined to get close enough to touch it.

Sin turned on him and thrashed, stirring up turbulent waves to keep him away.

Struggling against the dangerous waves, Auron dove underneath Sin and grabbed onto the creature's fin. As the toxin washed over him dragged him through an insane range of emotions, his awareness faded in and out several times until he lost consciousness.

When Auron awakened, he was alone on a strange, clouded path covered in spiraling magical wards that included many symbols of the Temple of Yevon. Shaking his head to clear his senses, he stood and looked around. The foggy, surreal landscape seemed to exist endlessly in all directions. Was he dreaming? Or was this place real? "Jecht!"

"Auron, you old stick in the mud! It's good to see you again!" The blitzball player materialized, laughing and grasping both of his shoulders in a hearty greeting. "Woah, looks like you had an unforgiving run-in with something nasty. Where'd you get that big ol' scar down your face?"

"A token from an argument with Lady Yunalesca. I went back to hold her accountable after you left and Braska died."

Jecht's smile faded. "And you didn't survive it."

Rather than admitting defeat, Auron looked at their strange surroundings. "What is this place? Is this the Farplane?"

"You're inside Sin, but this is as far as you go, old friend. Beyond this point, the fiends absorbed by Sin get bigger and nastier than anything found in the Zanarkand Ruins."

"I've waited a whole decade for you to resurface so I could keep my promise. If you were right about Sin being the key to your Zanarkand—"

"I was right. Just not quite the way I imagined." Jecht explained his death, resurrection, and encounter with the Fayth as he led Auron back down the path toward Sin's mouth, rather than inviting him further into the beast's inner world of chaos.

))((

Bahamut watched quietly from the pier as young Tidus placed his foot on his blitzball to position it just right.

Tidus backed up and took a short run to kick it, but he missed and fell down, instead. Standing up, he stared at the ball with a discouraged sigh. He didn't notice that his father had come onto the deck beside him until Jecht ridiculed the boy, mocking his inability to do his signature shot. The blitzball pro showed the boy the right way to do it, but Tidus turned his back. Steaming silently to himself, the boy went inside, straight to the digital screens to see what programs were on. Jecht's illusion disappeared from the deck since Tidus was no longer there to sustain it.

Bahamut saw Kaila and Valefor coming toward him and froze time. "Jecht really was a jerk. No wonder Shuyin hated him."

"True. But Jecht was fun, too. Where do you think Shuyin got his sense of humor?" Kaila tried to smile at the paradox.

"How is Tidus's timeline coming along?" he asked.

"Well, I found his mother's memories and backed up to change his name at birth, so everyone will know him only as Tidus. I left most of the unimportant stuff alone, but there are a few memories I felt needed to be cut. It's unavoidable that he will have gaps where I spliced out memories, but even real people don't actively remember _everything_ that happened to them. So, maybe he won't notice."

"On this end, he's still following a solid pattern, and we've filled in enough of the world around him that he hasn't questioned whether it's real or not. He's seven now, by the way." Bahamut paused and noticed the girls seemed to be in a rather somber mood. "Is something wrong?"

The girls looked at each other, then Valefor spoke. "Remember Lord Braska's daughter? She's decided to become a summoner, like her father. She began her final level of apprenticeship training today, and ... I think she's strong enough to do it."

"Yuna?" Bahamut smiled, remembering Braska's little girl.

"She lives in Besaid now," Valefor informed him.

Kaila faced the cabin door. "Do you think ... maybe Yuna would accept Tidus as her guardian, the way her father so easily accepted Jecht?"

"Did you have any other summoner in mind for him?" Valefor asked.

Bahamut sat down on the deck and gave this serious consideration. "Since their fathers made the pilgrimage together, it's worth a try. Keep me updated on her progress, okay? Tidus will have to grow up quickly if we are to get him ready in time to do this."

"You're putting a lot of heart into this, Bahamut." Valefor smiled. "I'm sure it will be worth one more try."

"Maybe I can help," an unfamiliar, fourth voice offered.

All three Fayth turned around and were surprised to be joined by Auron and Jecht. Valefor looked at Auron's scar with worry. "But, you're ..."

"Unsent," he confirmed her suspicion. "But not all unsent spirits are malevolent. Some of us just have promises to keep."

Grinning, Jecht slapped a hand onto Auron's shoulder. "He made a promise to watch over my boy, and now the bastard has come all this way intending to keep it."

"Where's the boy?" Auron asked.

The three Fayth glanced at each other, unsure of what to say.

"Shuyin died during the Machina War, but Tidus is inside the houseboat," Bahamut finally answered. "Tidus is an illusion made from part of Shuyin's soul. It's complicated because they come from the same soul, but we want to keep them apart, like two different people." Bahamut faced Jecht. "Tidus is still your son, but please, don't say anything about Shuyin in his presence. In his world, there is no Shuyin. There is only Tidus. He will find out the truth about himself when the time is right, but until then, we need him to believe he is real."

Jecht nodded in understanding and looked at the cabin door, knowing his son was on the other side. So close, yet so far away. "There will be time enough for a reunion when this is over. Let me know when he's ready. It's getting more difficult to break away from Yevon's control, so I need him to end it. Understand? Oh, and ... maybe give him this." He unstrapped his longsword from his back and passed it to Auron. "I don't really need it anymore, but ... he will." The blitzball legend took one last look at the door, and then his spirit faded from view, leaving the dream.

Bahamut looked at Auron, who remained. "Well, looks like we have a big ripple on the way. Shuyin didn't know you. How can we get Tidus to accept you as his guardian?"

Auron looked down at the red-and-black-bladed sword in his hands. "I've waited for ten years. I can lay low a little longer until I'm needed."

"Actually," Kaila spoke, "if Tidus is seven, Jecht won't be around much longer. And after his father leaves, his mother will follow. Since Koji won't be there for him this time, he could use a friend after that, so he doesn't suffer alone."

))((

Jecht had been missing for two weeks, but, as if nothing were amiss, Tidus went out on the pier to practice volleying his blitzball. Auron watched the boy for a few minutes from across the dock, where he stood with Kaila and Bahamut. Then, he glanced between them and headed toward his mission. "Tidus?"

The boy dropped the ball and looked up at the stranger with worry as he bent to stop it from rolling away. "Yeah?"

Auron tried to smile at the youngster in a non-threatening manner. "You're Jecht's son, right?"

Worry immediately shifted into tolerant displeasure as Tidus lifted his ball and stood. "Yeah."

"I have a message for your mother. Is she home?"

"Yeah."

The warrior monk nodded and headed for the door.

"Wait! You can't just walk into my house. My mom's not feeling well."

Auron was surprised at the runt's protective assertion. "She's upset that your father's missing."

"Yeah." If it weren't for a change of tone in each response, the boy's repetitive answers would have sounded like a recorded loop.

The unsent spirit crouched to meet the golden-headed boy's big blue eyes. He could see Jecht in Tidus's expressions, though he shared nothing of his father's dark features. "May I see her anyway? My message is rather urgent."

"Well, then, maybe you should tell me, and I can tell her."

"It's also very private. For her ears only."

The boy frowned. "Who are you?"

"You can call me Auron. I'm a friend of your father … from ... many years back."

"I never saw my dad hang out with you."

"I knew him in a different place and time. Before you existed."

The boy's expression softened. "Do you know where he is?"

Auron pressed his lips together and chose his words carefully. "I know that wherever he is, he wouldn't want his wife and son to think he just walked away and forgot about them."

Tidus stared at the big scar that permanently closed one of the man's eyes.

It wasn't hard for Auron to guess what held the boy's rapt attention. "I guess I look pretty scary, huh? I can't blame you for being cautious, but I won't hurt your mother. Promise. I just want to talk. I'll wait here, and you can bring her to me if you prefer."

"Okay, but you wait _right here_." Tidus adamantly pointed to the pier.

Auron was humored the authoritative command and nodded in agreement. "Right here."

Tidus walked away but looked over his shoulder with suspicion a couple of times before he disappeared inside the houseboat. A few minutes later, he came back out, followed by a woman with blue eyes and light brown hair that looked as if it might have been as blond as the boy's when she was younger.

"Yes?" Dannae approached with hesitation. Her features looked gaunt yet swollen … a grieving young widow and mother on the brink of despair now that her husband's disappearance had turned her life upside down.

Seeing her condition and glancing at the boy again, Auron sighed with a heavy heart at the burden he had agreed to bear. "I'm sorry to disturb you. My name is Auron. I was a friend of Jecht's."

"Dannae," she introduced herself, and a hint of a glow returned to her faded eyes and cheeks. "Have you ... heard from him, by any chance? Do you know where he is?"

"I was hoping we could talk privately."

"Yes, please. Come inside." Dannae opened the door for Auron. The boy started to follow them in, but she cut him off at the door. "Tidus, stay out here for now, okay. I need to talk to Auron alone."

"But—"

The door closed.

))((

The boy growled under his breath and stomped to the upper deck, hoping they heard every step through the ceiling. Then, he planted his blitzball and sat on it, dropping his chin into his hands with a stank-eye pout.

Kaila couldn't help but snicker as she and Bahamut approached to await and counter any extenuating ripples due to Auron's intervention. "I'm sorry. I know this is no laughing matter, but that was _sooo_ Shuyin. Makes me want to squeeze his chubby little cheeks." She laughed with an accompanying gesture.

Bahamut glanced flatly at his fellow Fayth, excitement for their creation now replaced by academic, studious intent. "Resist."

Kaila's hands fell to her sides, but she answered the reprimand with a flat frown of her own before folding her arms and smiling with pride at their creation's likeness to their model. Then she sighed. "It makes me miss him, you know?"

"I know," the boy at her side somberly agreed.

))((

Inside the houseboat, Auron followed Dannae to the sofa and sat down next to her. Her eyes longed for any news on her husband, and Auron found himself wondering how much he should say to ease her mind. "What I'm about to tell you is strictly confidential. You can't even tell your son, but I want to put your worry to rest. Jecht told me that he went to train in the ocean and touched Sin."

"Sin?"

"Sin is ... a monster, of sorts, made from the souls of the dead. It lives under the waters off the coast of Zanarkand. Sin pulled Jecht out of your world and into mine."

"Your … _world_? Are you … an alien race like the ronso, or …"

Auron allowed himself to dispel some of his pyreflies for a moment, revealing that he was a ghost.

Dannae gasped and clamored off of the sofa.

"Don't be afraid … please." Auron recast his illusion. "I'm here to help. Jecht often thought of Tidus and you, and his last wish was that his son be taken care of. So, I'm here to offer my services to you for that purpose. If there is anything you need—anything at all, for yourself or him—please don't hesitate to ask."

Hand cupped to her mouth, Dannae tried to hold back any forthcoming tears. "Is he really gone? Are you certain Jecht is ... is ...?"

"He died honorably, defeating Sin so that everyone else could be safe for a time." Auron unstrapped the longsword sheath that he carried next to his own and passed it to her. "He said to give this to his son. Since he knew he couldn't come back, he asked me to watch over him. So, I promised I would."

Dannae accepted the familiar sword and allowed the tears to fall, but wiped them away as quickly as they came. "Tidus hates his father. He will hate you since you are Jecht's friend."

"I'm prepared to accept that."

She broke into sobs. "Without Jecht, how will I ever ... I can't take care of our son alone."

"You must. He needs his mother now more than ever."

Dannae managed to quiet her emotion for a moment. "Thank you ... Auron. Please visit as often as you like. My home is your home."

"I'll check in now and then to see if you need anything." Seeing that she needed to be with her grief, Auron stood and headed back outside. Now came the hard part.

Auron didn't see the boy until he turned around and discovered he was being glared at from the boat's upper deck. "Tidus, you should stay out here for a bit longer. Your mother needs to be alone for a few minutes."

"Well, I _told_ you that when you came here."

Auron sighed. The boy already had his father's headstrong attitude. After a moment of questioning his own sanity for promising to take care of Mini-Jecht, he decided the only way to say this was to just say it. "I'm going to be helping your mother take care of you, now that your dad's gone. So, if there's anything you need—"

"What!" The boy stood up in protest. "I don't want a new dad. I don't even know you."

"I'm not trying to take the place of your dad."

"Then, stop dating my mom."

Auron's brow quirked at the saucy retort. "I'm not _dating_ your mom. I promised your dad I'd watch over you."

"Well, I didn't need him! So, I don't need you!"

"Not _your_ decision, I'm afraid," the warrior monk firmly countered.

"_Mooooooom!_" Tidus ran down the stairs, intending to talk some sense into his mother. Then, he turned around and ran back up to grab his ball before the strange man could do anything to it. After giving the warrior monk a puckered glare, the boy ran down to the lower deck again and went inside, banging the front door behind him.

Kaila and Bahamut drew near with doubtful expressions.

Auron sat down on one of the steps, unhooked the jug of nog hanging from his belt, and took a sip. "Well, that went over well, don't you think?"


	31. Chapter 31: Ripple

Chapter 31: Ripple

After forwarding Tidus's time flow one week, Kaila and Bahamut decided Auron should pay another visit. "We have a big ripple to cope with now because you told Dannae what happened to Jecht. She's still following her pattern of giving up, but it's too soon," Bahamut explained.

"Not knowing ... That would seem worse to me." Auron leaned back against the wall of the building behind him.

Kaila smiled sympathetically at Auron's compassion for the woman he only recently met. "I know. But by not knowing, she kept holding on for Jecht to return. She stayed just long enough for Shuyin to become independent. But now, she has no hope of seeing her husband again, so she's ready to leave, even though Tidus is still a little boy."

"Then, what should I do?"

She sat down on the ground and thought through the events that really happened, trying to foresee what might change for Tidus if he lost his mother too soon. "Keep trying to gain his trust, and try to talk Dannae out of her decision. Her mind is already made up, but we need her to hold on as long as possible. Tidus needs to be at least sixteen to survive on his own without her."

"If you can alter the dream, why can't you just remove my mistake?" Auron asked.

"There's a continuum for Tidus that's hard to explain," Bahamut answered. "If we erase something he's already aware of, he'll notice it. Dannae's mind is already too far gone; she's already neglecting him because of her depression. If we erase what you said to her, so that she gets better all of a sudden, he may get suspicious. Dannae is just an illusion, but Tidus's soul is real. Dannae wouldn't have even been here to speak with you if we hadn't added her memories after a couple of close calls where Tidus almost noticed gaps."

Auron sighed. "This is hard."

Kaila sighed, too, sympathetic again. "I know. But if she dies early, Tidus will be left to fend for himself at age seven. In reality, the temple came to claim Shuyin, but we can't let that happen this time. It's too drastic a difference from the pattern, especially at such a young age. He needs to grow up in his home, but you're the only 'real' person Tidus has. Just don't let him know what happened to his dad yet, and don't let him see his mother's death first-hand. It was too painful for Shu, so he ended up blaming himself. And that contributed to what he is now. We can't forge a guardian from that."

The warrior monk accepted their wisdom. Then, he straightened and crossed the pier to visit Dannae and her son once more. Tidus was on the deck again. But this time, he stood still and quiet, staring at the ocean, looking rather lost. Auron suspected the boy was worried about his mother. "Is she all right?"

"Why should you care?" Tidus returned. Again with the defensiveness ...

"If she dies, I wouldn't know what to do."

Tidus's hands curled into fists as he turned to face him. "Don't say Mom is gonna die!"

Auron realized he had made another mistake. "I apologize."

Upset, Tidus ran inside.

The warrior monk sighed in disgust. "I'm doing this all wrong. I should have taken Yuna to Besaid and let Kimahri handle Jecht Jr." But, resigned to his promise, Auron let himself inside. Dannae wasn't around, so he supposed she was in her bedroom. Entering the hall, he heard the boy crying into his pillow on his bed, so he paused outside the boy's door. "Tidus ..."

The boy immediately rolled toward the wall, back to the door. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you."

"Why?" the boy challenged.

"Because this door isn't very interesting." When a long moment of silence followed, Auron entered and sat down on the edge of the bed at the boy's feet, but he said nothing. Sitting in patient silence, uncomfortable with this parenting thing, the warrior monk asked himself what Jecht might do or say if he were here. Then, he shook his head and considered what Braska would do instead. But Auron wasn't either of those men, so he suddenly felt inadequate trying to fill their shoes.

Tidus pushed himself up on his elbows and looked over his shoulder at the man. "What are you doing?" he complained about his silent presence.

"Waiting for you, so we can talk."

The boy sniffled and rubbed an eye to wipe away his tears, but a stray still rolled down his cheek. "Is my mom going to die?"

The warrior monk supposed giving the kid the straightforward truth wasn't the right thing to do. But neither was lying to him. "She's very sad right now. She probably feels like dying, but we don't want her to give up hope yet. So, instead of letting her dwell on what she's lost, we need to help her realize what she still has. … She still has you ... right?"

Tidus pushed himself to sit upright and dangled his legs over the side of the bed. "I guess so." He folded his hands between his skinned knees.

Auron studied the sad little boy and considered his future within the confinement of the dream and the plans of the Fayth for him beyond it.

The boy sniffled and wiped his tears again, but he had nothing further to say to the stranger.

After another long, awkward silence, Auron stood and left the boy's room, careful to pull the door shut to give him some privacy.

Auron checked on Tidus once a week for a couple of weeks after that, until Dannae's rapidly failing health made it necessary for him to check-in every day. Within another week, Auron began sleeping on the sofa to get the boy off to school in the mornings and prevent him from missing meals.

))((

One weekend morning, Tidus woke and dressed in his Sea Stars blitzball uniform before running into the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. He buttered some toast for the mini-oven and grabbed a plum from the fruit basket to eat while he waited for his toast to cook. Sweet, sticky juice from the overripe plum dripped down his fingers, but he wiped them on his clean shirt as he hummed to himself between bites. When the timer dinged, without a second thought, he reached a bare hand into the mini-oven to grab his toast. "Ouch!" He dropped the toast on the floor and jerked his hand back at the intense sting. Sucking air through his teeth to keep from crying, Tidus looked at his burnt fingers. Red welts were already rising into puffy blisters.

Setting down his half-eaten plum, the boy cradled his wounded hand to his chest and entered the living room to look at the warrior monk on one of the long, curved sofas. The man had spent most of his time talking with his mother in private or sitting alone on the deck, staring out to sea. Auron was an utterly confusing and annoying enigma because he never said anything, but when he did, it was weird. He happened to be here at the moment, though. So, Tidus approached and poked him on the shoulder. "Auron?"

The warrior monk muttered a muffled, reluctant response without moving.

Tidus used a sticky finger to pry open Auron's one good eye. "Hey, are you awake?"

The man frowned at the boy and pushed his hand away. "I am now." He shifted on the sofa to face him. "What are you doing up so early? It's not a school day. Grown-ups like to do this thing called 'sleeping in' on the weekends."

"I burnt my fingers." Tidus showed him the injured digits.

"Run them under cold water."

"I need a bandage."

Auron grasped the boy's wrist and narrowed his good eye on the red marks. "You don't need a bandage. Run them under cold water," he repeated after seeing the minor injury. Then, he rolled over, pulled his red haori further up to his neck like a blanket, and tried to go back to sleep.

"But they hurt really bad like they're on fire."

The warrior monk could tell he would have no peace until he did something about it. Sighing to himself and shrugging off the haori, Auron padded sleepily into the kitchen, and Tidus trailed behind him. "A bandage isn't going to make it feel any better. You need to put something cold on it."

"You mean like when I sunburn, and my mom puts an ice rag on my back?"

Auron cast the boy a doubtful side-glance at the strange remedy, but then plunged the burnt fingers under a cold, running stream at the sink. With a groan, he bent to pick up the toast that had landed butter-side-down on the floor. "Do you have a game today?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know." Auron tossed the toast in the trash and passed a wet cloth to the boy to clean up his own mess. Turning off the water, he grabbed a towel to dry his hands. "Why do you have your uniform on if you don't know?"

"Because I like it. I like playing blitzball. My dad used to say I'm not very good at it, but I think I am. I'm just not as good as him yet because he's bigger. But someday, when I get as big as my dad, I'll do those shots better than he did!" he fussed at the sleepy warrior monk. "I'm going to learn the sphere shot and the Jecht shot, and—that's my dad's own shot, you know. Do you play blitzball? You don't look like you'd be any fun to play blitzball with." Tidus bent to wipe up the butter. "I guess it doesn't matter since you're not one of the Abes. I know all the Abes because my dad used to take me to his games until I started playing my own. Then they put our games on the same days, and he had to go to his own games because he'd get fired if he didn't. But they said they were going to fire him anyway because he was drinking really bad. He promised he would quit, but he never quit. So, I don't care if he's gone." His brows dipped with his frown. "I hate him. And you can tell him that, too! He was always drinking and being mean to mom and me, but she likes him anyway. How can she like him when he was so mean to her? He was only nice when he was fishing. And even then, he sometimes yelled at me for being too noisy and scaring the fish away. Do you like fishing?" He paused and looked up at Auron.

Auron blinked at the boy's early morning chatter as if he'd been listening to squirrel fuss at him for getting too close to his acorn. "What did you drink with that toast? Ten cups of coffee?"

"Huh?" Tidus was confused.

Auron shook his head. "If I could bottle it and sell it, I'd make a million gil."

"Bottle what? You mean my dad's beer?"

"Never mind, kid."

The boy pinched the wet rag between two fingers and left it unrinsed and bunched on the countertop. "Can I have a bandage now? My fingers hurt."

Auron rubbed a palm over his sleepy face but surrendered to the boy's persistence. "Fine. Where does your mom keep the bandages?"

"In the bathroom up high, where I can't reach the medicines. But if I climb on the sink, I can reach them. But don't tell her that. I can climb the walls in the hallway, too. I put one foot and hand on one wall and one foot and hand on the other, and I can walk right up to the ceiling like a spider! But don't tell her that either."

The warrior monk grumbled something about squashing spiders who wake up too early on weekends and left to get the first aid kit.

Tidus shrugged, picked up his plum again, and tried to suck more juice from it. While he studied his burns, his mother came into the kitchen. She had been acting strangely and sleeping a lot lately. It was a little scary to see her vacant expression. "Mom, are you coming to my game today?" When she didn't respond, he was disappointed but approached to show her his fingers. "I burnt myself making toast. It really hurts."

"Yes. It hurts." She shook her head and started to cry. "Baby, I'm so sorry." Dannae wrapped her arms around him to hold him close. "I can't do this anymore."

"Do … what?"

"But you'll do fine. I just know it. He'll help you."

The boy was confused at her increasingly disjointed conversations, but he figured she was talking about Auron. "Oh yeah, he's _loads_ of help." Tidus rolled his eyes. "He didn't even want to give me a bandage." Discouraged and impatient, the boy pulled away from his mother and left the kitchen to meet the warrior monk in the living room as he was coming back with the first-aid kit.

Auron opened the kit, removed a bandage, and dropped the rest of the box on the sofa. Pulling off the sterile tabs, he placed the bandage on the back of the boy's hand. "There. A bandage. Happy?"

"That's not where my burn is."

"I'm not putting a bandage on burn blisters. Just keep them dry and clean, and—" The sound of glass shattering in the kitchen interrupted him. Auron froze.

The boy scrunched up his face and moved past him to see what his mother dropped.

"Tidus!" Auron grabbed his arm. He seemed ready to tackle him if necessary to prevent him from taking another step toward the kitchen. "I'll help your mother." Digging into his pocket, the man deposited several gil into the boy's superfluously bandaged hand. Then, he took him by the arm again and walked him to the front door. "Go to the shop down the street and buy a bottle of healing potion for your fingers. You can use what's left to buy yourself a treat."

Tidus started to question the orders, but the strength of the warrior monk's presence made him think twice about it this time. Mildly intimidated, the boy picked up his shoes. He slipped them on without untying them and cast one more glance at Auron's strange change of mood, but then he left.

))((

Auron sighed with relief as soon as Tidus was gone. Then, he hurried into the kitchen. He knew what to expect, thanks to conversations with Kaila. Dannae was on the floor, a pool of crimson spreading around her next to the shard of broken glass she had used to end her life. But he knelt beside her and lifted her shoulders to lean against him.

"Tidus?" she whispered.

"Auron," he corrected.

The woman squeezed her eyes shut against her tears. "I loved them both so much."

"I know you did. We'll try hard to resolve this mess, so you can be with both of them again someday."

Bahamut and Kaila materialized nearby.

"End her suffering. Call a summoner to send her, so that she doesn't linger," Auron requested, though he himself was unsent.

"Her soul is already in the Farplane. And this Zanarkand doesn't have summoners," Bahamut answered. "There's no need since everyone, except Tidus, is an illusion." They all watched as Dannae's body dispersed into pyreflies, and the evidence of her suicide disappeared as if it never happened.

Kaila seemed shaken by her own memories of this experience. "This is going to cause a major ripple between Shuyin's lifeline and Tidus's. But this way, Tidus won't be haunted by guilt over it the way Shuyin was."

Auron was at a loss. "How do I tell him?"

"Don't worry about finding the right words. Just be there for him."

Later, when Tidus returned home, he kicked off his shoes and ran to the sofa, where Auron sat. "I got the healing potion!" The boy deposited a bag in Auron's lap. "And I got some gum." He grinned to show off the blue wad between his teeth that had dyed his teeth, tongue, and lips blue. "And I got this really awesome manga! See? It's got—"

"Tidus," Auron interrupted. "We need to talk." Unsure of how to deliver the news, he opened the bag and removed the bottle of healing potion. It was obviously the most expensive bottle the boy could find since he had only enough gil left for the gum and book. The boy was still young enough that he had no common sense on how to spend money wisely yet. But that had not been the point of this shopping trip. "Your mother just passed away. She's already been taken to the temple for burial at sea." He cringed at the lie, but it was the only thing he could think of to ward off questions about seeing her. "I'm sorry."

The boy's brows rose at the unexpected news, and he shook his head in disbelief. Then, he pitched his manga to the floor and ran down into the lower bedroom. When he saw that his mother wasn't there, he ran back up to the kitchen. She wasn't there either. Returning to the living room, Tidus struggled between denial and realization that it was true. "She's really gone?"

Auron answered the boy's pain-filled question with a small nod.

"But I bought her some healing potion to make her all better, and I ran back as fast as I could."

Surprised to learn the flaw in his thinking, Auron looked again at the expensive bottle. "You … spent all that money on a potion for _her_?"

Tidus's heart constricted as fear, sorrow, anger, and shock began to overwhelm him all at once. Sitting down on the floor and drawing his head to his knees, the boy started to cry.

Uncapping the healing potion, Auron knelt before the boy and applied some of it to the burns on his small fingers. The magical tonic instantly healed them. "This was a very thoughtful gift. But it couldn't have helped, no matter how fast you ran. Your mother's pain was too deep for any potion."

The boy wiped angrily at the flow of tears burning in his eyes. "But I didn't even get to say goodbye."

Auron capped the bottle. "Her last words were that she loved you and your father very much." The warrior monk felt unsure about what to do next. He had purposefully kept his distance from the boy to avoid questions about his father. But as the boy's mother deteriorated, he had come to know him well enough to truly empathize with him. Shifting to the floor to sit beside him, Auron rested a hand on Tidus's scruffy blond head.

Kaila, who had been at the back of the room with Bahamut, came forward and knelt behind the boy to give him a gentle hug, though he couldn't see her or feel her touch.

The boy unfolded and crawled into Auron's lap to continue grieving in his arms. Auron accepted him and let him cry until he exhausted himself. Then, he carried the boy to his bed.

"Auron, where do people go when they die?" Tidus quietly asked as he released the man's neck.

The question caught the unsent man off-guard. There was no quick and easy answer, but perhaps an answer wasn't what the boy wanted right now. "They go where their hearts lead them."

"Then … she must have gone to my dad," the boy figured with a hint of resentment in his voice. "Do you think they can see me where they are?"

"I think that they wish they could." The warrior monk straightened and started to leave.

"Auron? Will you come to my game today if I have one ... since my mom won't be there?"

"You don't have to go to a game today, kid. I'm sure your coach and team will understand why you didn't show."

The boy seemed relieved to hear that, even if he did already have his uniform on. "Will you come to my next game?"

Auron remembered Jecht lamenting that he had not seen very many of his son's games. "I'll be there."

With nothing more to say, the boy rolled onto his side, facing the wall to be alone with his grief.

Auron pulled his door shut and turned around as Bahamut and Kaila appeared.

"He handled that amazingly well this time. Thank you, Auron." Kaila gave him a hug.

))((

Tidus reluctantly came to accept Auron as his temporary guardian. At the very least, he no longer complained about him being an unwelcome guest in his home. Auron was slower to adapt to the pseudo-parent situation he suddenly found himself in, but he gradually got the hang of the boy's daily routines and helped him stick to them as life returned to a new normal. The boy's routine care was easy, even if he was not. His days centered around a full day of school and blitzball practice, and then he usually played by himself outside until dark. Getting him to eat his dinner was easy, too. Getting him to do his homework was hard.

The Fayth found themselves pleasantly surprised at the boy's resilience. Without Jecht around to frustrate and mock him, and without Dannae's gloom to drag him down, Tidus's energy and optimism began to shine … to the point where Auron sometimes wondered if he didn't prefer the quiet, angry child who had nothing to say … like the time Tidus pushed open the front door and peered inside to make sure the living room was empty before trotting a big, wet, reddish-brown dog through the houseboat. Auron didn't suspect a thing until the loud thudding and jumping from the boy's bedroom began to grate his nerves while he was trying to read. Then, after a loud crash that sounded like something broke, he decided enough was enough.

Putting down his book, the warrior monk headed to the boy's bedroom and banged a fist on the door. "Quiet down in there or any furniture you break comes out of your allowance!"

The room got very quiet very quickly, except for one distinct _woof_!

"No, he didn't." Auron grasped the doorknob and found the boy sitting on his bed in front of a blanket heap that owned a wagging tail. Tidus was still wearing his school clothes, but he was soaked from head to toe as if he'd just come from a blitzball game. His face was streaked with dirt, and he had a new scrape on his forehead. The boy was always banging himself up in one way or another.

"Can I have a dog?" Tidus asked.

Auron frowned. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because _you_ are enough to have to clean up after. Take it back outside."

"Take what back outside?"

"The dog."

"I don't have a dog. That's why I'm asking for one." The boy was dead serious. "Can I _please_ have a dog? I'll take care of it. I promise."

Auron pushed the door open against the keyboard that now lay broken on the floor under a blitzball—obviously what he heard fall.

Tidus read the look on his face. "I never used it much anyway."

Stepping over the keyboard, the warrior monk walked to the bed and jerked the covers from the bundle behind the boy.

The dog responded with another excited _woof_! And there was mud all over the sheets underneath them.

"Get it out of the house, Tidus."

"Awww, man ..." The boy stood and took his time dragging the big dog off of the bed. The dog resisted, thinking it was a game. "I thought of a really cool name for him, too. I could call him Blitzer. He likes to play blitzball, and he can swim really good."

Auron began stripping the bedding as soon as they were off. "Well, that explains the wet dog smell."

"Our neighbor, Old Man Rane, has a goldfish pond at the end of the pier, and Blitzer wanted to play with the fish. He jumped in, and I didn't know he could swim, so I jumped in to pull him back out."

Auron's brow twitched. That explained the mud, too. "Old Man Rane won't be happy to hear that."

"He wasn't. He chased us away and called us bad words because Blitzer caught one of his fish. But Blitzer didn't know it was a pet. Can we have it for dinner?"

"Have what?" Auron asked, dreading the answer.

Tidus reached into his drawer and pulled out a large, very dead, red-and-white koi.

Auron smacked his own forehead. His hand then slid down his face over his mouth in an effort to keep himself from using the same foul words he suspected Old Man Rane used. "Get the dog out of the house!"

Tidus's lips pursed in a pout, and he plunked the dead fish on his mattress. "My mom would have let me keep him." But, the boy obediently took the dog to the front door to let him out.

"And take a bath!" Auron called after him.

"It's not my bath time yet!" Tidus protested from the living room before coming back to his bedroom door.

"It is now. You smell like wet dog and dead fish."

"What if I don't want to take a bath?" Tidus defiantly puffed out his chest and crossed his arms.

Auron met the challenge with a flat expression. "I really don't care what you want."

"If I had a dog to play with, I'd be willing to take my baths. I'd even be willing to do my homework." The boy grinned with hope.

"Or I could dunk you in the ocean, and you can play with sharks, instead." Auron gathered the muddy sheets into his arms.

The boy's eyes widened, but then he ran to the bath and turned on the tap water.

"A dog," Auron grumbled, shaking his head. Grabbing the dead koi, he took the dirty sheets to the washer. "Spent my entire life training to fight fiends, and now I'm washing sheets because of a smelly, wet dog." After slapping the dead fish on the kitchen counter, the warrior monk turned on the washer's water, added soap, and dumped the sheets into it. Then he returned to the dead fish and glared at it as if it were to blame for enticing the boy into mischief. "Can't you guys speed things up a little more?" he fussed at the unseen Fayth that he knew were hanging around somewhere.

Bahamut appeared, amused.

Kaila laughed aloud. "Aw, but he was a cute dog."

Irritated, Auron picked up the fish and waggled it in her face. "He stole the neighbor's koi!"

She snickered behind a hand. "Then, maybe you should keep a closer eye on him to keep him out of trouble."

"His middle name is _Trouble_. He's just like his father, only shorter and louder. What, exactly, is our progress rate here? Do I really have to go through ten more years of this?"

Bahamut giggled at the warrior monk's ire. "Well, Tidus went way off Shuyin's original pattern after his mother died, but he's almost back to it now. If left on his own, he will become Shuyin all over again, and he could cause more harm than good. So, please, we need you to stay with him. Once he falls back into the original pattern, we'll speed things up again," Bahamut promised. "We don't have ten more years to get him ready for what's in store, but we have to minimize the gaps enough that it feels like ten years to him."

"It already feels like ten years to me."

"Hey, you're the one who promised Jecht you'd stay with him," Kaila reminded him. "Be grateful this is just a dream, or you'd be in for a long, long ride." She grinned. "You're doing a great job with him, though. And—" She and Bahamut suddenly disappeared.

Freshly scrubbed, Tidus walked in with a big, bulky towel wrapped around his scrawny frame. It was so big in comparison to him that he had to grip it with both fists to keep it around his pot-belly stomach and off the ground to avoid tripping over it. "My pajamas were in my sheets," he unhappily announced to the warrior monk who had too-promptly stripped his bed and dumped the linens in the wash.

The warrior monk ushered the boy out of the kitchen back to the bathroom to get the first aid kit … _again_. "They'll be dry before you go to bed. Just grab some clean shorts and a T-shirt for now."

"Can I have a bandage for my cut?" He touched his forehead with one finger near the newest scrape to grace his body.

"You don't _need_ a bandage. We still have that healing potion you bought."

"But then no one asks you what happened. When you wear bandages, people ask what happened, and you get to tell them neat stories. My mom used to tell me stories. Do you like telling stories?" Tidus climbed up on the toilet lid and leaned forward to scrutinize Auron's face. "Can you tell me what happened to make this?" He drew a small finger down the side of his own face, mirroring the warrior monk's scar.

Auron considered the boy's innocent question, but he couldn't tell him that someday soon, he would have to try to destroy the same unsent spirit that gave him that scar. He couldn't picture the small, tender-hearted boy facing off against Lady Yunalesca by any stretch of the imagination. "Another story for another time. What happened to make that?" Auron put the healing potion back and grabbed a small bandage, sticking it on the boy's forehead.

"I was jumping off the swings at school and tried a flip, but I fell."

Auron rolled his eyes as if he should have known better than to ask. The boy was a fearless bundle of raw energy. And while that would probably aid him in fighting fiends, a healthy fear was necessary to prevent careless disasters ... like dead koi. "Tidus, tomorrow we have to apologize to your neighbor and offer to replace his fish. You can't go swimming in other people's ponds. Not for any reason. It's inconsiderate and dangerous. And no more jumping off of swings."

Tidus interpreted the warrior monk's weary tone as concern for his welfare, rather than a scolding. "But nothing _too_ bad happened. It's just a little cut, see?" He lifted his bangs and pointed to his forehead bandage. "It might scar, but you have a scar, too. Don't worry, Auron. Everything's going to be okay. You can't control everything that happens to you, but no matter what happens, you can turn it into something good." His small hand patted the scar on his guardian's cheek. Then, with a confident smile, the boy jumped down from the toilet lid and ran to his bedroom to get dressed for bed.

Auron looked to where Kaila and Bahamut stood waiting for him to finish tending the boy. "'Everything's going to be okay,' he says."

Kaila smiled, pleased. "He's learning from you. He'll make a great guardian for Lady Yuna."

"I don't know. This just doesn't feel right sometimes. We're training a little boy to—"

"To do what must be done," Bahamut reminded him. "This is _why_ he was created."

"I know, but … what about Tidus? Have you ever asked what he thinks his purpose is?" Auron countered. "What will happen to him when all is said and done?"

"If he succeeds, he will end our dreaming. We can all rest, even you. If he fails ... he will become the next Sin. I know it's easy to feel for him because you have to take care of him. But, always remember he could become the next destroyer of Spira if he fails to break the cycle."

"The ripples we create for him here in the dream need to make him strong enough to break the pattern out there, so he can defeat Yu Yevon," Kaila added.

Auron nodded, supposing they were right. But then they both quickly disappeared again.

"Who are you talking to?" Tidus had changed into a loose cotton T-shirt and shorts.

The warrior monk turned out the light in the bathroom as he exited. "Just … thinking aloud."

"Will you read me a story?"

"Did you do your homework?"

"I ... Um ..." The boy averted his eyes back toward his bedroom door.

"Do your homework. Then we'll read."

Tidus's shoulders slumped, and he heaved a dramatic sigh as if ordered to do hard time in prison. "Homework is so _boring._"

With a mixture of amusement, resignation, and remorse, Auron watched the boy's sad, pathetic return to his room. "Your life will be anything but boring soon enough, kid."


	32. Chapter 32: Father Figure

Chapter 32: Father Figure

With the delicate situation involving Dannae's death out of the way, the Fayth decided they could skip forward on Tidus's time flow a bit. But they had to allow him full days with Auron every few weeks to prevent him from realizing he didn't have a full scope of memories.

On one such afternoon, thirteen-year-old Tidus came home from blitzball practice after school and found Auron sitting on a pulley-platform over the port side of the boat. Curious, instead of going straight inside to shower and change, he leaned over the rail. "What are you doing?"

"Checking the integrity of the hull. One of the bilge pumps failed today, and it came to my attention how much this boat needs maintenance. With a failed pump, you could find yourself sitting at the bottom of the ocean, rather than on top. But before I fix it, I wanted to check the hull." Auron scratched his shoulder above the long scar that trailed all the way down his torso. "Did your father teach you how to work on this boat before he left?"

"I was seven. He taught me not to jump over the rail," Tidus retorted. "Did you used to work on ships?" He squinted one eye shut. "Argh, ye were a pirate, right me matey? There be monsters in those waters and wenches in those taverns to explore. Explore the waters, I mean. Not the wenches. Although—"

"Don't even go there." Auron tested another area on the hull in front of him. "And I've been around enough that I know what I'm doing."

"With wenches?"

Auron paused to look Tidus in the eye. "_Ships._"

"What kind of job did you used to do?"

"I was a guardian."

"Nah, I mean before you came here."

"I was a warrior monk, and then I was a mercenary guardian. Now I'm guarding you. I guard. That's what I do." Auron returned to his work.

"Warrior monk ..." Tidus thought about that for a minute. "Don't monks have to shave their heads?"

Auron remembered when Jecht said the same thing to him. "Different kind of monk."

"Why did you quit?"

"Long story."

Tidus folded his arms over the rail and grasped his elbows, setting his chin on his forearms. "Long story like that scar?"

"They're distantly related."

"You still never told me what happened. A scar like that looks like it would have killed you."

Auron stopped pressing the hull and pushed his sunglasses up on his nose. Resting an arm on one knee, he looked up at his charge. "A story for another time and place."

Tidus snorted. "You always say that. Must have been some dark and shady dealings involved, if you're not willing to talk about it."

"There's nothing dark and shady about wanting to keep some things private. You don't tell me everything that goes on in your life."

"What's to tell?" Tidus shrugged. "I play blitzball. I'm Jecht Jr.," he stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He straightened and climbed up on the railing to sit on it, facing the port side of the boat just above where Auron was working. "How come you never talk about him?"

"How come you never talk about him?" Auron returned his attention to the boat.

"Because I hate him. What's your excuse?"

"You hate him," Auron answered with a subtle shrug.

The indifferent response annoyed Tidus. "Forget it. I don't know why I even bother talking to you. You never give straight answers." Turning around, he hopped off the railing to go inside.

"Tidus, I think you need to come here and learn about what I'm doing."

"Aw, come on. I'm hungry."

"We can grill later. Right now, while there's daylight, you need to learn how to take care of this boat. It'll be easier to learn from me while I'm here than trying to figure it out alone when I'm gone."

The unexpected news stopped Tidus from opening the cabin door and prompted him to walk back to the rail. "You're leaving?"

"You won't need a legal guardian after you turn seventeen, so you need to learn how to manage on your own by then."

Tidus hadn't realized there would someday be an end to this arrangement. Auron wasn't half-bad as far as a father figure goes. Though the man had a subtle wit that could be sharper than a knife, not once had Auron ridiculed him. Auron was the only "family" Tidus had, so the idea of him leaving was a frightening thought.

When he didn't respond, Auron squinted up at him and scratched the scar on his shoulder again. "Are you coming down here, or do I have to drag you overboard? Loosen the rope on that cleat to lower the platform a few notches. I'll get this side over here." Auron rose to one knee and reached for the left cleat holding the plank on which he sat, expecting Tidus to take care of the one on the right.

Setting down his shoulder bag and leaning over the rail, Tidus grasped the rope and untied it, but he unwound it a little too much. Being that loose, the rope couldn't handle the weight of the setup, especially with Auron on it. Though Tidus tried to lower his side of the contraption slowly, the coil jumped the cleat and slipped through his hands. The rope burn prompted him to release the cord completely and give his hands a shake. "Atch-ch!"

"Tidus!" Auron barked in reprimand, but it was too late. The right side of the plank tilted beneath him, spilling him into the water with a big splash.

The teen looked over the railing with a wince as Auron surfaced and glared at him. "Sorry! Don't kill me, okay? It was an accident!" Hands on the rail, Tidus sprang over it and climbed down the rope on the fallen side of the plank. Then, hanging onto the rope, he used his feet to try to lift the plank back within arm's reach.

Auron shook his head at the kid's attempts to fix it and swam underneath the plank to push it up so Tidus could grasp it. Then, he swam to the pier and climbed out. A bit soggy, but unharmed, Auron padded back to the port side of the boat and watched Tidus cross the outer railing to reattach the rope to the cleat. "A little lower," he advised, helping him get both sides even. "That's it. Now check the other one and make sure it's still secure."

Tidus nodded and set his feet on the wet plank. He tested it by doing small bounces to be sure it would support his weight before crossing to the left cleat to give that rope a firm test-tug. "It's good!"

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Auron grabbed the newly secured rope and pulled the end to untie it again.

"What? Hey!" Tidus fell into the water the same way he had made Auron fall.

Chuckling with satisfaction, Auron turned to walk away.

The teen climbed back up the rope-and-board contraption to the deck and shook himself off like a dog. "I said it was an accident!"

"And now you'll remember not to release too much rope next time." The warrior monk smirked and put a hand to the door, ready to go inside for a towel.

Tidus sniffled and blinked the saltwater from his eyes. "Hey, Auron?"

The man paused.

"Um ... there's this girl in my class named Gin. And I kinda like her, so I was wondering if I could ask her over some time. For, you know, like, a date?"

Auron's smirk fell. "Girls?"

"Just one." Tidus held up one finger with the correction, but then considered Auron's assumption. "Am I allowed to have more than one?"

The man's lips pressed together in a thin line in answer to that stupid question.

"Oh, wait. What am I asking you for? You're a monk." Tidus giggled at his own joke.

Auron sighed at the boy's teasing. "Again, your concept is wrong."

"So, you were allowed to keep your hair _and_ be with girls? What kind of a monk is that?"

"Hmph." Auron pushed the front door open.

Tidus grinned at his guardian's attempt to avoid this conversation. He had hit a nerve, so of course, he had to prod it a few more times. Leaving the half-fallen plank where it was, he picked up his shoulder bag to follow him inside. "Sounds like someone's got more than a few shady stories he doesn't want to tell."

Giving the boy a flat expression that meant he refused to comment, Auron grabbed two towels from the closet, passed one to the boy, and opened the other to dry his head, face, and arms. Then, he left the towel draped behind his neck and shoulders as he headed into the kitchen.

))((

Kaila waited until Tidus went into his room to change before she followed Bahamut into the kitchen behind Auron. "According to my brother, Gin was Shuyin's first kiss and his first girlfriend, so you have to say 'yes' to his date request. We'll clip the time flow after that, so he doesn't get attached. It was a super short relationship, anyway." She shrugged. "Actually, most of his relationships were super short. Shuyin was a pathological flirt. He never made enemies of the girls he dated, though. Well, except me," she admitted, embarrassed. "But I always thought of him as a good friend, even when I was mad at him. I guess it's because he was always such an open book, you know? What you see is what you get with him."

The confession surprised Bahamut, who glanced at her with doubt and then understanding. "But he was also impatient and self-centered." The boy spoke to Auron. "When he became interested in my sister, he completely disregarded the fact that she was dating Kaila's brother, Koji. He really did love Lenne, and he remains unsent to this day because he misses her so much, but ..."

"Koji accused Shuyin of stealing his girl," Kaila finished what Bahamut hesitated to say. "They fought about it, and ... Koji died as a result." Saddened by the memory, she lowered her gaze.

"Shuyin didn't _actually kill_ Koji," Bahamut quickly inserted. "But if he hadn't been so impulsive, Lenne might have been able to end things with Koji in a better way. You should guide Tidus toward having more patience and common sense about that kind of thing. Especially since it appears that his summoner is going to be Braska's daughter."

"Yuna?" Auron leaned back against the kitchen counter to mull over his memories of the little girl. "It's been ten years since I've seen her. Is Kimahri Ronso still with her in Besaid?"

Bahamut nodded. "Yes, and now she's training in her father's footsteps as a summoner. She may be our best bet at taking Tidus all the way to Zanarkand to become the Final Aeon … to fight Sin and Yevon. We'll give him to her, just as we gave Jecht to Braska. In hopes that maybe—"

"But that means you're planning on Yuna meeting the same fate as her father," Auron interrupted.

"Not if Tidus can defeat Yevon before he takes possession. Tidus is quick, strong-willed, and made of a new combination of magic that Yevon has never fought before. We think he'll be better able to resist long enough to end the fight before Yevon can take him, especially if he has help from his father. Anyway, the good news is Tidus is almost completely back on pattern with Shuyin's other memories that we've allowed him to keep. His soul knows who he used to be, even if his current conscience doesn't. That should make it a little easier to predict what he's going to do. Keep interacting with him the way you've been doing. That's part of what's keeping him from turning back into Shuyin—which we definitely don't want."

The plans of the Fayth lay naked before Auron now. Again, he couldn't help but sympathize with the boy's lack of choice regarding his own fate, but he tried to shift his concerns from the future back to the present. "I don't suppose you have any advice on what to do now that his interest has switched from dogs to dates?"

Kaila smiled. "No, but it sounds like it's time for you to give him some advice on girls."

"You can't be serious. That's strictly Jecht's department."

"But Jecht can't be here for him, so he needs you," she answered.

Auron sighed heavily, grabbed a couple of containers of pre-sliced food from the fridge, and headed toward Tidus's room to face his next challenge with this kid. After knocking on the door and waiting for him to answer, he thrust the food into the boy's arms. "Take that outside and set up the grill. We'll finish inspecting the hull after we eat."

Tidus accepted the task without complaint.

Then, Auron went down into the lower level of the houseboat. He had taken over Dannae's bedroom, so he went to the closet and moved some boxes to reveal Jecht's sword, standing in the corner at the back. "Well, I can't do this any _worse_ than you might have, right?" But as he reached for the sword, he changed his mind and grabbed his own instead. Then, he headed back up the stairs and out onto the lower deck. Tidus was on the upper deck, lighting the grill. Auron shouldered the heavy, black blade and ascended the stairs at a leisurely pace.

Tidus looked up, hearing him coming, but did a double-take upon seeing the sword. "Woah! Oh, wow! Where did you get that?" Like filament to a magnet, Tidus was drawn to and reached for the exotic weapon.

"Don't touch it." Auron knocked his hand away. "I brought it with me when I first came here, but you probably don't remember because you were so young. You wanted to know what kind of monk I used to be. I said I used to be a warrior monk, emphasis on _warrior_." He unsheathed the heavy daikatana and firmly planted the tip between the wooden slats in the deck.

"You used _this_ as a monk?" Tidus eagerly reached for the hilt.

"I said, don't touch it!" Auron snapped.

Tidus startled but withdrew at the command. "Geeze, okay, already. You don't have to be so scary about it. Hey, you're not going to use that on _me_, are you?"

"I might." Auron remained straight-faced, though he was amused at the sudden caution.

Tidus narrowed his eyes, unable to tell whether the man was serious or not. "Um ... did I do something wrong?"

Auron thought about what Kaila and Bahamut said about Shuyin. Then he thought about little Yuna, Lord Braska's pride and joy. "No, but we're going to make sure that you don't."

The boy seemed to think he missed something.

The warrior monk turned his back to him and waved a hand over the grill to test its heat before setting the strips of meat and sliced vegetables on it. After a long moment, he took note of the unusual silence. "Are you touching the sword?" He peered behind his shoulder.

Tidus had been reaching a finger toward the ornate golden design on the ebony cross-piece, but he froze in place. "No," he answered with annoyance, withdrawing again.

"Liar."

The boy frowned."Well, what'd you bring it out here for if you're not going to do anything with it?"

Auron chose his words carefully. "I brought it out here so you could admire its beauty and strength. But you can't handle a sword without learning how to appreciate and respect it first. Your sword is your best friend in battle. Your life depends on how well you take care of it. Handle it improperly, or take it for granted, and the consequences can be unforgiving."

Tidus became hopeful. "You're going to teach me how to use it?"

"No, I'm going to teach you how to keep your hands off of it, even though it's right in front of you." Auron returned his attention to the food on the grill and softened his tone. "So … tell me about this girl that you like. What's her name? Brandy?"

"Gin." Tidus flicked the little tassel and string of beads hanging from the sword's hilt, secretly defying the monk's orders.

Auron stopped situating the meat on the grill and gave the boy a look of warning over his shoulder. "What part of '_don't_' did you not understand?"

"How did you—"

"_Keep your hands to yourself._"

"I did!" The young teen's voice cracked under the strength of his protest.

"You did _not_. Sit down over here where I can see you." Auron scowled, pointing to the other side of the grill, away from the sword.

With a sour expression, Tidus moved to sit where he was told, cross-legged on the deck. Then, with a grumpy pout, he dropped his chin into his hands.

))((

Unseen to them, Kaila was beside herself with laughter and wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh, this is going to be good," she said to Bahamut.

Following this amusing event, Bahamut continued to work on Tidus's time flow within the dream, speeding things along at regular intervals as quickly as he dared until he came close to the time when Shuyin's mother originally died. He decided this could be tricky to navigate since Shuyin's memories could end up recalling something that was supposed to have already happened in Tidus's life. Slowing the time frames to a normal rate, he began seeking ways to ensure there wouldn't be any problems.

In the locker room after blitzball practice, where Shuyin would have been talking to Koji, Tidus spun the combination lock on his locker door and opened it without comment to anyone. Grabbing his towel, he flipped it over his shoulder and reached for his shower supplies. Then, he started toward one of the shower stalls when his coach intercepted him.

His coach fussed at him for reports from his teachers that he was failing language arts, despite his attempt to rescue his grades in history. "You know, your father was the best player the sport ever knew."

"This again." Tidus snorted in disgust and shook his head. "Yeah, he was his number one fan."

His coach frowned at his response. "There is no guarantee you're going to play professional blitzball just because your father did."

"Is this a page out of my history teacher's book of lectures? I'm not trying to be like my dad." Tidus remained patient, though he looked like he was struggling to hold his tongue. "Maybe I want to play blitzball because I just like it and happen to be good at it."

"Eighty percent, or better, or you're off the team. Understood?" the coach warned.

"Understood," Tidus grumped, accepting his reprimand.

"In the meantime, we'll have to find someone else to take your pool position."

"_What?_"

The coach lifted his tablet-clipboard and penned a note. Then, he scrolled through a few previous notes to make another. "Okay, final call! Tidus is on the bench. Jaz takes right forward. We'll move Ekina off the bench to take the right defense, and move Nan up to center."

"Center?" Nan overheard the coach's conversation. "All right! You just made my day, Jecht Jr." He gripped the back of Tidus's neck.

"What_ever_." Tidus headed for an empty shower stall and hung his towel on the door hook. Still in his wet uniform, he turned on the showerhead. Removing his team shirt, he wrapped it around his hand and wrung the chlorine out of it first. Then, palms flat against the tile, he stood with his head bowed beneath the steady spray, but the cool water did nothing to ease his frustration. With a discouraged sigh, Tidus leaned against the wall and worried about how he was going to bring his grades up.

"Interesting," Bahamut commented aloud. "Tidus is shaping up to be a lot less temperamental than Shuyin might have been about something like that. Shuyin probably would have hit the ceiling … or at least a wall. I guess that's still better than hitting a fan."

"Yes, Tidus is shaping up quite nicely." Kaila smiled at how their experiment had grown over the sixteen years given to him so far.

"How close are we to Shuyin's mother's death?" Bahamut asked. "That part of the pattern is going to be totally out of whack now." When she didn't answer, the boy faced his fellow Fayth and noticed the puppy-struck look on her face. "_Kaila._" He gave her a nudge and a frown.

"What?" She blushed. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"Would you keep your mind on what we're supposed to be doing here?" he fussed.

"We're in a high school boys' locker room, and I died as a high school girl, okay?" she defended.

Bahamut rolled his eyes at her distraction. "How much longer before Shuyin's mother died?"

Kaila sighed. "Well, Birana is tutoring Tidus in history now, so he's probably going to ask her to the spring dance—which I really should have slapped both Shuyin and Koji for setting me up like that. But it's soon, within a week or two. His mother died the morning after the dance."

"Setting you up?"

Kaila explained the messy ordeal, becoming more irritated the more that she talked about it.

"You're really not over that yet, are you?" he commented when she finished.

"I am _so over it_. It just happened to be a major turning point for me, okay?"

"Then, it might have been a turning point for Shuyin, too."

"Obviously. It's what caused the rift between him and Koji. But Tidus won't have that fight. We don't exist to him. So, if we're not there, he will probably go to the dance with Birana. And while that might work out fine, what will happen the next morning when his mom originally died? Do we just let it play out and see what happens?"

Bahamut sat down on the floor of the locker room to think. "Perhaps we should stick as close as possible to what's familiar, to prevent a big ripple from becoming worse. You were present at both events, right? Having you present again might minimize how far the new events stray from his old pattern."

"I was present, but we argued."

"It still might be better for him to be with you than this other girl, since she had no other role in Shuyin's life. You might not have been romantically involved with him, but it sounds like you influenced his sense of loyalty and friendship. You argued with him the night before, but you were there for him the next day when he needed you. And you remained friends even after he hurt your feelings. You were able to forgive him, but Shuyin hasn't been able to forgive anyone for what happened to him and Lenne. … Tidus needs that lesson."

Kaila shook her head, confused. "You want Tidus to remember my argument with Shuyin?"

"No. Leaving Shuyin's memories of you in-tact would trigger memories of other things we've tried hard to erase for Tidus. You know him, but he shouldn't know you. Think of it as being a stunt double for yourself for a short time."

"A what?" Kaila folded her arms at her chest. "You mean I have to actually talk to him?"

"It's just for a week or so. I think your friendship made a difference in Shuyin's life. It would be nice if you could be there for Tidus, too."

"I'm a thousand years old. I have absolutely _no_ desire to go back to high school; I don't care how good the blizball team looked."

Tidus came out of the shower, barefoot but freshly dressed in dry jeans and a t-shirt. Standing alone at his locker, he started packing his bag of wet clothes and some books into his duffle bag. He always seemed so _alone_, compared to Shuyin.

Kaila sighed and surrendered. "Okay, I'll do it."

Bahamut smiled at her cooperation. "Then let's go for a walk. He needs to run into you before he studies with Birana. You have to keep him from asking her to the dance."

"Are you kidding? I couldn't do that the first time around."

Bahamut grabbed Kaila's hand and ran out of the gym to hide behind the corner of the library. There, they waited for Tidus to also exit the gym to meet with his tutor. "There he is," Bahamut prompted as soon as their subject came into view.

"What do I say?" Kaila hissed, wringing her hands.

"Just be yourself. How hard can it be? You already know him."

"No, I don't. I knew _Shuyin_!"

"Tidus isn't _that_ different."

"I know!" she hissed again, flustered.

Bahamut made a face at her contradictory worries. "He's coming this way. Quick. Call more pyreflies, so he can see you."

Kaila summoned more particles of magic into her translucent form until she coalesced into a solid, living appearance. "How do I look?" Her hand went to her ponytail, and she realized she hadn't put on any make-up. "Is my skin okay? I don't have any zits do I?"

"You're starting to sound like my sister. You look fine. All you're missing is a conversation piece." Bahamut summoned a stack of spheres and notebooks in her arms. "There. _Now_ you're a language arts tutor."

"I don't remember grammar rules. I am centuries older than the gum under my desk."

"You're seventeen," he reminded his fretful partner, giving her a push to shove her out from the bushes and onto the sidewalk. Then he smacked her armful of books to make her drop them before giggling at his act and jumping back into the bushes to hide.

"Bahamut!" she scolded but then crouched to pick up everything. She had just scooped the last item into her arms again when she turned around and collided with Tidus.

Tidus was surprised by the collision, considering there was nobody there before he started adjusting his headphones and selecting a new song from his music sphere.

Embarrassed, Kaila flashed him a nervous smile as he removed one earpiece and stared at the books on the sidewalk. "I'm so sorry. I think _someone_ gave me too much to carry," she groused at the bushes, but then crouched to pick up the dropped items again.

"Oh, hey, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, or I would have seen you coming." Tidus wasn't entirely sure about that statement, but he knelt to help her collect her things. "Wow, that's a lot of books and spheres. You must be doing an end-of-term report or something."

Kaila met his gaze as she accepted the spheres he collected for her. It was one thing to work with Tidus while invisible. It was another thing to interact with him while he acknowledged her presence. "Yes, I ... I guess I am."

"What subject?"

She tore her attention away from his face to glance quickly over the labels on the books and spheres. "Looks like … _romance_ fiction?" She cast another sharp glare toward her invisible cohort hidden in the bushes. She could have sworn she heard the bushes snicker in return.

Tidus was still half-listening to his music as he straightened to stand with her. "Mh, language arts isn't a great subject for me."

"Well, maybe I could tutor you?" She inwardly groaned at how scripted that sounded.

Tidus quirked a brow. "How do I know your grades aren't as bad as mine?"

Kaila was almost insulted, considering how much he goofed off and slept in classes. "What?"

He chuckled at her offended expression. "Kidding. I have to bring my grades up, or I'm going to be benched for finals. Are you for real about that offer?"

"Yeah, for real."

"Cool. Uh, what's your name? I've never seen you before today."

"Kaila." She started to walk toward the library, and he followed since that was where he was meeting his history tutor.

"I'm—"

"Tidus," she blurted. "I know."

He was surprised but then grinned. "Wait. You've probably seen me on the blitzball team, right? That's how most people know me. You had me thinking you were psychic there for a minute."

"Well … maybe I am." She smiled at how easy-going his personality was—just like Shuyin's—and her nervousness began to dissipate as they walked.

"Okay, then. What am I thinking?" He closed his eyes, concentrating on something unseen.

Kaila smirked at being tested. "You're going to the library?"

He opened his eyes. "Hey, you're good, considering the library is right behind you."

"And you're going to meet with your history tutor."

"Woah." He laughed. "Okay, I'm impressed."

"And you're thinking of asking her to go to the dance with you."

Tidus stopped walking and faced her. "Okay, now it's just spooky. How did you know that?"

Kaila chewed a lip, wondering how to answer him. Then she decided not to. Instead, she used Shuyin's distractability against him. "Don't ask her, okay?"

"What? Why not?"

"Because it's not a good idea."

He stepped back. "How would you know?"

Kaila winced, shrugged, and started walking again. "I'm psychic, remember? I can feel it."

Walking by her side, Tidus didn't know whether to be amused or offended, but her strange responses intrigued him. "Did you have some kind of vision about a bus running me over on my way to pick her up?"

"Maybe. Or … maybe I just know someone else that would really like to go with you instead."

He was unsure what to make of that but remained amused. "Who?"

"I can't tell you yet."

"Why not?"

"It's ... a secret. But if you need help with language arts, I'll tell you who it is tomorrow."

Tidus grasped onto the strap of the duffle bag hanging from his shoulder, and he studied her with doubt. "Well, I don't want to get hit by lightning, or anything, just because I ignored a psychic. So, how about my place tomorrow after blitzball practice?"

Kaila stopped walking again. "Okay."

"But I still have to meet her to go over my history homework, so the bus or lightning isn't going to hit me in the library, is it?"

"No, no," she answered with an embarrassed laugh.

"Cool. See you tomorrow, then." He continued toward the library on his own.

Kaila bit her lip to keep from smiling as she turned the corner onto the nearest side street. "Yes!" she congratulated herself with a hiss as soon as she was alone.

Bahamut appeared before her. "_Psychic_? Really?"

"He went along with it, didn't he?" Kaila giggled. "He's fun. He's like Shuyin, but without all the moody attitude! Oh my god, I forgot how blue his eyes were! And that smile!"

"Don't get too excited, Kaila. Remember, this is only temporary."

"You put me up to this. Shut up and let me enjoy it. Kaila shoots, and she scores! Woohoo!" Dropping the books and spheres, she imitated Shuyin's little victory dance.

"Woohoo! What are we celebrating?" Tidus chimed in.

Kaila's eyes popped open, and she froze in mid-motion.

Bahamut had already vanished.

Behind her, Tidus had joined in doing his trademark dance.

Outwardly groaning while turning five shades of red, Kaila straightened and cleared her throat as she smoothed her shorts. "I … was … practicing my blitzball cheer for the next game … to … cheer you on … now that we've … met." She cringed at how cringey and awkward that sounded, even to her. Then she stooped to pick up her books again.

"Ah." He wasn't buying it, still clearly humored at having caught her in the act. But he said nothing more about it as he bent to help once more. "Well, I realized I forgot to tell you I live on a houseboat down at the harbor. I can show you where if we meet outside the gym after practice and walk there together." Straightening, he handed her the books he retrieved.

"Oh, that's okay, I'll just meet you there, so I'm not hanging around with nothing to do while you practice."

His brows rose, and he scratched his head. "You know where I live?"

"I'm very familiar with the harbor. I've seen you practicing on the deck."

"Oh. Okay. Then, I'll see you there. I gotta run, or I'm going to be late."

She smiled and waved until he jogged out of sight. Then, she stopped holding her breath and slumped against the wall. "Great! Now he thinks I'm a stalker," she lamented as Bahamut reappeared at her side with a sly smirk.

* * *

Author's Note: Just letting everyone know my schedule is changing. If you are following me for updates, I will be posting them on Saturdays, instead of Fridays, starting next week. :)


	33. Chapter 33: Déjà vu

Chapter 33: _Déjà Vu_

Dressed in casual, tan shorts and a light rose-colored T-shirt, with her brown hair swept into her usual ponytail, Kaila knocked on the door of the houseboat and waited for Tidus to answer the door. "Hi. Is now a good time for language arts?"

Tidus stepped aside to let her come in. "Sure."

Entering the houseboat, Kaila slid off her sandals and walked past him. "Doing dishes?" As she chuckled and gave the towel on his shoulder a small tug, the weirdest sense of _déjà vu_ came over her now that she was actively taking part in this facade.

"Something like that." He smiled pleasantly enough and led her into the kitchen. Hanging the dishtowel on the cabinet door and pulling a handful of cookies from the counter jar, he split the serving with her.

Kaila thought of all the times they shared treats with each other and smirked at his instinctive behavior. "Thanks." As she watched him check the laundry, she remembered they had spoken of Shuyin's mother next, but she was careful not to mention her to Tidus this time around.

Tidus opened the washer and transferred a load to the dryer. "I was supposed to meet my history tutor at the library this afternoon, but I postponed it for tomorrow since I'm tutoring with you today. I'm beginning to think my week will be filled with nothing but tutoring sessions now."

Kaila stopped chewing her cookie. "You passed up a meeting with Birana for me?"

"I told you yesterday we'd meet today."

"Yeah, but that's not ..." She caught herself before finishing that thought. _That's just not like you. But you're not you. You're someone else._

"Not what?"

"Nothing. Sorry." She shrugged it off with embarrassment. "I guess I'm not used to being treated so … nice. My brother and his best friend would never pass up someone like Birana for an afternoon with a grammar book and me."

He was humored by that odd confession. "You don't want me to be nice to you?"

"It's just ... weird."

"You'd rather I act like a jerk?"

"No," she emphatically answered.

He paused, folded his arms at his chest, and tilted his chin. "Wait, how'd you know her name?"

Kaila froze. _Oops_. "Psychic," she reminded him with a light laugh to cover her mistake. "Did you … ask her … yet?"

He giggled lightly. "You told me not to. Make up your mind."

Kaila couldn't help but be amused at how much Tidus's giggle sounded like Shuyin's. "And you actually listened to me?"

"You know, I'm a natural skeptic, but when someone reads my mind, I listen until I can figure out how the trick is being done. I haven't told anyone I was thinking of asking her to the dance, so I can't figure out how you knew. And what _exactly_ is this bad feeling you have about me asking her out?"

She quieted and brushed the flour dust from her other cookies before crossing the kitchen to stand near the sink. "Well, my brother once told me that she only dated guys with a certain grade average."

Tidus's eyes went to her bare feet when he saw where she was standing. Moving to her side, he crouched to inspect the floor. "Oh, I get it. You're trying to warn me I don't stand a chance because of my failing grades."

"No, I just have a feeling that ..." Kaila remembered what happened next with Shuyin, but she felt compelled to repeat it anyway, mainly because she knew his mother couldn't have dropped a glass this time. "Are you … looking at my legs?"

"Only above the ankle," he quipped with a playful grin. "Actually, I dropped a glass of water a few minutes ago. I didn't want you to cut your foot if the vac missed a piece."

"_You_ dropped it." She didn't bother to look where the auto-vac was bumping around on the other side of the room. After pondering the altered—but continued—course of events, she was stunned to realize he had just flirted with her. … With _her_. "Thanks for looking out for me." She wasn't sure whether to be happy or cautious about how close this ripple was sticking to the original pattern, considering what she had to navigate around.

"No problem." He shrugged, returned to the washer, and dumped the last of the load into the dryer. "Actually, you're right about Birana's standards. I've already asked her out a couple of times, and she refuses until I get my grades up. I can't believe she's so stingy about it. I mean, I can't blame her for wanting to date a smart guy, but it feels like I'm jumping through hoops just to impress her. I can't decide how I feel about that, you know? On the one hand, if you like someone, you do things they like to make them happy. But on the other hand, that person should be able to accept you for who you are rather than trying to change you, right?"

Kaila blinked in silent dismay but tried not to let it show. She wondered if Shuyin ever felt that way, or if this was just one more way Tidus was different. "I … guess so."

"Maybe you're right about asking her out being a bad idea." He shrugged in mild discouragement, switched on the appliance, then leaned against it. "But I've also been thinking about that person you said wanted to go with me, and ... I'd rather not accept a blind date, either."

"Understandable."

Tidus waited for an expectant moment. "You're not going to tell me who it was?"

"Well, it … doesn't matter now."

Snorting in amusement at her peculiar answers, he moved to the table and collected his digital notebook and study spheres. Then, he sat down at the counter and used his foot to push another tall bar stool out for her. "You were supposed to say it wouldn't be a blind date."

She grabbed the grammar handbook and accompanying sphere as she sat next to him. "Why would I say that?"

Tidus laughed in mild embarrassment. "Okay, this is going to sound incredibly awkward, but I thought you meant this secret admirer was … you."

"Me?" Kaila suddenly realized her presence wasn't just a matter of keeping him from getting involved with Birana. During the real events, she had asked him to go to the dance with her. "Great," she muttered under her breath, realizing that disaster was now setting itself up again despite her attempt to circumnavigate him away from it.

He wasn't sure how to interpret her reaction. "I guess that means you're not interested?"

Kaila froze again. He wasn't supposed to turn the tables on her like this. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Is that a polite 'no' or a maybe?"

She really didn't want to go through this again. "Why would you ask me?"

He leaned forward to study her face for a moment. "This is going to sound crazy—and I don't know why—but … you seem really familiar."

Her "psychic" response wouldn't get her out of this one, and she was running out of excuses.

Auron came into the kitchen and glanced at her with a knowing expression. "Tidus, the trash needs taking out."

The corner of Tidus's mouth quirked in annoyance. "What? It's fine."

"Take the trash out."

"This is Auron—my unofficial guardian monk," Tidus introduced him to Kaila. "He gets cranky when he doesn't get his afternoon naps." But Tidus straightened, unseated himself, and gathered the trash bag. "I'll be right back," he groused to her before leaving with it.

Auron waited until he heard the front door shut, indicating Tidus was on his way to the garbage bin at the end of the pier. "See what you've been missing when he can talk back?" He had already been told of the precautionary plans to put Kaila back into Tidus's path, to be a constant amid the possibly wild variables surrounding his real mother's death.

"He asked me to the dance. What should I say?"

Auron shrugged. "Say, yes."

"But—"

"You're the one who told me I should let him go on dates." Auron smirked at her getting caught in her own trap. Pulling a bottle from the fridge, he popped the cap, tossed the lid toward the empty trash can, and took a long drink to quench his thirst.

"But we never actually went to the dance. We had a really bad argument. And I don't want to argue with him like that again."

Auron shrugged. "Then go to the dance and have fun this time. He's a good kid."

"He said I seemed familiar. What if he remembers me? What if he starts remembering what really happened? Bahamut!" Kaila looked around for the other Fayth.

The boy's spirit appeared. "Deny it and keep playing your new role. You've got to lead him away from what really happened without straying too far from it if this is going to work out smoothly. The reason for your argument is no longer part of his story, and the whole point of you being here is to fill the void with something better. The memories of the dance can be supplied by everyone else who attended. Remember, this isn't about what happened between you and Shuyin. This is about training Tidus to be a guardian—to be the Final Aeon, so he can defeat Sin for good." Bahamut heard the front door open, so he disappeared.

Kaila looked back at the homework spread across the countertop. _This is about training Tidus to be a guardian - to be the Final Aeon, so he can defeat Sin for good._ She had seen so many Final Aeons come and go that the name had become a paradox, but it hurt to think of what Lady Yunalesca would do to this one. She understood now why this task bothered Auron sometimes.

Tidus returned to the kitchen and slipped past Auron to put a new trash bag in the can, only to sigh with disgust when he spied the bottle cap at the bottom. "You could have put the new bag in yourself, you know." He fixed the bag before dropping the bottlecap back in.

"You should have put the new bag in before taking out the old." Auron tipped his drink to Kaila, then left.

Tidus sat on his barstool once more. "Okay, where were we?"

With a heavy heart, Kaila lifted her gaze to his face. She knew that the illusion before her was nothing but a mixed-up memory of Shuyin with a bit of borrowed soul. She knew that his destiny, whether he succeeded or failed, would likely end his own false existence. That was his truth. But, he didn't know that. He believed all of this was real and knew nothing of his predestined fate.

"Is something wrong?"

"No," she quietly answered. "I was going to say ... I'd be happy to go to the dance with you."

He was uncertain about her tone and expression. "If you don't want to—"

"No, I want to," she promptly corrected and smiled to hide her concern. "It sounds like fun."

"Cool," he returned with a slow grin.

That grin was contagious. Kaila couldn't help but return it before trying to turn the conversation toward something else. "Maybe we should actually do some language arts now? What have you been doing in class?"

He studied her for a moment longer as if still trying to figure out what felt so familiar, but then he shook his head at his inability to find the memory he was seeking. Turning his digital notebook around, he opened it to locate his most recent notes. "Archetypes of star-crossed lovers from ancient literature. I have to write a paper comparing two couples. I was thinking of doing Orihime and Hikoboshi with Romeo and Juliet."

"What? You're kidding."

"Yeah, I know, right? I hate trying to read Shakespeare." He turned his notes toward her. "But both of them had parent issues, so I figure it's a starting point. I'm just drawing a blank on anything else they have in common. Maybe I should pick someone else. I don't know." He shrugged, slouched chin-in-hand, and awaited her review.

Kaila almost groaned in disbelief at the theme, considering what happened to Shuyin and Lenne, but her memory confirmed this was the assignment that week.

))((

A couple of weeks later, the night of the dance finally arrived—again. Still afraid of inviting unwanted memories, Kaila changed her dress color to green when she cast herself in the illusion of formal attire. She was torn between dread and amusement when Tidus answered the door in the same half-dressed condition Shuyin had, but his greeting was completely unexpected.

"Wow. That's different. You look ... nice in that." He invited her inside, but then gave her an animated 'stop right there' gesture and looked down at his dark blue pants. "You're early, and I'm not quite ready yet, but just a sec, okay?"

Kaila tilted her chin in curiosity as he jogged down the hall to his room and shut the door. There was a lot of noise for a few minutes, but then the door opened again with a sweeping arm of invitation. Stepping out of her silver heels, she hooked the ankle straps on her fingers and followed.

The floor was cleared. The bed was made. And the whole room was tidy in a rushed kind of way. She couldn't help but smirk, knowing what it looked like before. "So, where'd you hide everything?"

"Under the bed," he admitted with a chuckle and a shrug.

"Even the smut comic?" she asked with a quirked brow.

He blinked at her with astonishment. "Okay, you're really starting to freak me out with that psychic stuff."

She laughed. "Sorry." Kaila withdrew something small from her hand purse and held it out to him. "Peace offering?"

Tidus opened his hand and received a piece of candy. He grinned at the gift, but then unwrapped it and scrutinized it.

"Do you not like strawberry candy?" She wondered if this was another difference between Shuyin and Tidus. Maybe she had made a mistake giving it to him.

"Strawberry is usually my favorite flavor. I just can't remember if I've had these before. I think I have. Are you sure this isn't a bribe to keep me from stepping on your toes? I do know how to dance, you know." He gave her a light wink, popped the candy into his mouth, and walked to his closet to grab a shirt. Pulling it over his head, he flicked the ends of his hair out of his collar. Then, he grabbed some socks from a drawer and sat on the bed to put them on.

Kaila sighed with relief at the familiar wink and sat down beside him, drawing her ankles underneath herself. "You mean a dance other than that ridiculous blitzball crowd-pleaser?"

"That's not ridiculous; it's classic. You were doing it. I caught you red-handed, even though you never did tell me what you were celebrating. See, when_ I _do that, it means I've scored."

She was embarrassed all over again. "Oh, well, that was ... I thought I had a bug on me."

"Uh-huh." Tidus smirked as if he knew better and drew his ankles into a cross-legged position as he turned to face her. "So, have you thought about what you want to do after the dance?" Finding the candy wrapper again, he rolled it into a ball between his thumb and forefinger.

Kaila remembered this conversation with Shuyin … and the outcome. "No, I haven't."

"I thought we could go to the Neon District and catch a movie."

She nodded with a small smile. "Sounds like fun."

He noticed that she seemed a bit disappointed. "If you'd rather do something else, I'm okay with that, too."

A rap on the door sill caught their attention. "Shouldn't you two be in the living room or on your way to the dance?" Auron asked.

Both of them frowned at him. "Look, just because you _temporarily_ live here to watch over me doesn't mean you get to barge into my room any time you want," Tidus groused.

Auron entered the room, settled back-against-the-wall, and set his fixed gaze on the teen.

Tidus became annoyed. "What are you doing?"

"Watching over you."

"Okay, that's it. I'm out of here." Tidus took Kaila's hand and flicked the candy wrapper at Auron on the way out.

Kaila frowned at the unsent guardian for his obnoxious intrusion as she followed.

))((

Auron chuckled at their reactions to his little joke.

Bahamut appeared beside him. "Well, that did the trick to push this ripple along, but … I'm wondering if this was such a good idea, after all."

"What do you mean?" the warrior monk asked as they walked from Tidus's bedroom back into the living room.

"Isn't it obvious?" The boy looked toward the front door with worry, though the couple had already left. "Kaila still has feelings for Shuyin."

))((

Kaila made up for missing her date with Shuyin by dancing with Tidus all night. When the dance was over, they walked to the Neon District for dinner, a movie, and a few more pieces of candy. It was very late by the time they turned back toward the harbor. So, _this_ was what it felt like to be _Kaila_ instead of _Koji's sister_.

"And then he made me take the dog outside and dragged me by the ear to apologize to Old Man Rane." Tidus laughed. "I thought Auron was going to kill me!"

Kaila laughed, too—not because the story itself was surprising or amusing, but because hearing him talk about it made her feel like all their hard work "raising" him had been worthwhile. "So ... you have good memories of your childhood?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, it had moments that I'd rather forget, but it's like that for everyone, isn't it?"

She smiled and nodded in agreement. "I suppose."

Tidus paused and shook his head when they came to an intersection. "Gah! I wasn't even thinking where I was going. I'm incapable of walking and talking at the same time. Which way is your home? I'll walk you back."

"Oh, it's okay. I'd rather go back to the houseboat."

"Are you sure? It's really late, and we'll have to face stick-in-the-mud Auron again. I can't _believe_ he was actually going to sit there and watch us." Then, after a pause, an impish grin lit his expression. "Hey, I know where we can go." Grabbing her hand, he started to run off the paved road.

Kaila planted her feet firmly to make him stop. "I can't run; I'm wearing heels!"

"Oh, right." He giggled at his mistake. "Well, then …" He scooped her into his arms, instead.

"What are you doing? This isn't a swimming pool or a blitzball arena!"

"True. Get on my back, then." He set her down and bent hands-to-knees waiting.

"Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise." He gestured again for her to hop onto his back.

Kaila sighed and removed her heels before climbing onto his back. "Don't you dare drop me."

"You mean like this?" He straightened and let her slip halfway down.

Kaila squealed and tightened her arms around his neck.

Laughing, he shifted her back up and ran across the grass. He teased at "accidentally" dropping her a few more times, but upon reaching the top of a small hill, he set her feet down safely in the cool grass to catch his breath.

"You have way too much energy! Aren't you tired from all that dancing?"

"I'm just getting warmed up," he answered. "But if you're tired, we can rest here for a few minutes." Sitting on the grass, both of them faced the open harbor, and Tidus lifted his face toward the breeze coming off of the ocean. He closed his eyes to enjoy it for a moment, but when he opened them, he found her staring at him with a strange sort of glazed expression. "Is something wrong?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Everything's ... perfect."

Tidus seemed pleased to hear it. Then, after a quiet moment, he leaned across her and brushed a strawberry flavored kiss lightly over her lips.

Kaila drew back in alarm.

"Sorry," he winced. "I guess I should have asked—"

"No, no! It's just … you surprised me."

"And you call yourself a psychic." With a mischievous grin, he drew an arm around her shoulders with another kiss.

As the kiss lingered, she relaxed and touched his neck to pull him closer. But his kiss … It was different. When she opened her eyes, she stared at him with wonder, as if seeing his face for the first time. "You really are … someone new," she whispered.

He tried not to look bewildered by the odd comment.

Struggling with herself over this new depth of awareness where he was concerned, she began to feel frightened for him. But she made herself give him a reassuring smile before turning her gaze to the stars. "Tidus?" It felt strange to call him by that name out loud. "Do you ever think about your future?"

"All the time. Right now, I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat when I get home."

She tilted her chin and gave him a flat glance for the joke. "That's not what I mean."

He returned a cheesy grin. "Okay, not really. Right now, I'm just interested in having fun, you know?" He bumped his knee lightly against hers. "Are you having fun?"

She smirked at his flirtation. "Absolutely. But … what do you plan to do when you're done with school?"

He gave a light shrug and leaned back on his hands. "I'll probably end up trying out for the Abes. Everyone's expecting me to follow in my old man's footsteps, anyway."

Kaila knew Tidus needed to go sign up with the Abes soon, but once his short year with the Abes was up, it would be time for him to leave the dream. "Is that the only thing you want for your life? Blitzball?"

"What else is there?"

"University education, world travel, self-employment, marriage, family ..."

"Oh, no way." He shook his head. "Maybe world travel, but my parents made marriage look like it was about as fun as having teeth pulled. My mom practically worshiped the ground my dad walked on, but he was too full of himself to notice. He hurt her a lot, but she always made excuses for him. He always acted like we were a burden weighing down his career. I never want to be stuck in a relationship like that."

Kaila plucked a blade of grass and absently pulled it between her fingers. "I used to love someone like that. He taught me that love shouldn't be blind. Forgiveness is one thing, but to turn a blind eye to repeated wrongs isn't love. It's an addiction—a selfish obsession. It's harmful to hold someone captive to our own desires or to allow yourself to be held captive to someone else's. You can't _make_ someone love you." She pulled the blade of grass in half and stared at the dark, broken ends in the light of the distant streetlamp. "True love isn't possessive; it's protective. It protects, even if it means letting go … if that's what it takes to prevent harm. Do you understand?"

He answered with a pensive nod. "I guess so."

Kaila wanted to be sure he understood, for the sake of his summoner—for all of Spira's sake. "Then, is it possessive or protective if a man loves his girlfriend so much that he's willing to kill the man she left him for?"

"Possessive. If she leaves him for someone else and he can't let go, he's more concerned about his own happiness than hers."

"But if you love someone, it's hard to let go," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but if she couldn't return his affection, he was with the wrong person. If he truly loved her, he would have let her go, so they could both be with someone better."

Kaila was intrigued by the fact that Tidus answered without any hint of recognition toward Lenne and Koji. Hopefully, that meant he was doing his own thinking, rather than making judgments based on Shuyin's memories. She decided to risk prying deeper. "What if the other guy was the man's best friend?"

"Okay, that's just wrong. If the other guy interferes with his best friend's girl, that's just asking to have your butt kicked."

She was humored at his opinion of his former self. "Of course, _you_ would never do anything like that."

"Of course not! Do you realize the resentment that would cause? It would turn best friends into enemies. And if the new relationship didn't work out, they would have ruined a friendship for nothing."

"What if the girl was in danger? Is love worth dying for? Or is it better to save yourself?"

Tidus had to think about it for a moment. "If there's a chance my death could make a difference in her survival, I'd let go of me to save her. That way, at least there's a chance for forgiveness. Because if I didn't try to help and something bad happened to her, I'd have to live with knowing I let her die." He paused and looked at her. "I don't think I could live with that kind of guilt, you know?"

Tidus had just opened a window into his borrowed soul without realizing it, and it confirmed Kaila's suspicion about why Shuyin remained unsent after all these years. It wasn't that he was incapable of forgiving the people who killed them and destroyed Zanarkand. It was because he was incapable of forgiving himself. He needed to hear Lenne say she forgave him for not being able to protect her, but maybe she didn't get that chance.

"Is this some kind of test I have to pass before I can ask for a second date?" Tidus quipped, bringing Kaila's thoughts back to the present.

She returned a sad smile. "Just seeing if you knew the difference between a passing fling and eternity. Life is a passing fling. But death ... Death is for always."

He snapped his fingers. "I knew it! This has to do with my language arts report on star-crossed lovers, doesn't it?" Then, he wagged a scolding finger before she could answer. "Love isn't about dying together, to be with each other forever. What matters is how you _live_ together in the short time that you have. Because death doesn't accomplish anything. A dead man can't save anyone's life."

"Are you saying that to sound impressive, or do you really mean it?"

"It is impressive enough to get a passing grade on my report and stop you from turning our date into a tutoring session?"

She couldn't help but chuckle. "Yes."

"Then, both." He returned a smug smirk, pleased with himself for having figured out her lesson … or so he thought. "So … did I pass your test?"

"You aced it," she answered with a soft, proud smile.

"Then, this means you'll go out with me again? I've got a blitzball game tomorrow morning. I can pick you up on my way if you're interested in going."

Kaila slipped her arms under his, encircling his torso, and let her cheek rest against his chest. Closing her eyes, she listened to the sound of his heartbeat—his own unique heartbeat—as she weighed her conflicting thoughts and emotions. "No."

He drew back. "No to the game or …"

"You are so much like the first guy that I ever fell for. But … you're not really him."

He was more surprised than hurt to hear this admission. "I … don't understand. Did you go out with me just because I remind you of an old boyfriend?"

"I have _thoroughly_ enjoyed being with you. But ..."

"But I'm not him," he finished for her.

_ You are who I always wished he could have been._ Kaila bit her tongue to keep from saying that. Because when all was said and done, she would have to let go and hand him over to Braska's daughter. She wasn't ready for that—not yet. But she could think of no better gift to aid the young summoner in her impossible task. "There will always be a place in my heart for you. You are, without a doubt, one of the greatest guys I have ever met. But … I don't think we should see each other again."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're dumping me after one date? A date you enjoyed? I thought I passed the test? I shouldn't have kissed you, right? Auron and his stupid sword lectures ..." he muttered, berating himself.

"There's someone else who needs you."

He was utterly bewildered, and it showed. "So, I'm supposed to walk away as if we never met?"

"It was one date. That's not enough time to know me, let alone love me."

He stood with a frown. "No. But it was enough to know I could have."

Upset that she had upset him, Kaila watched him walk away. Then, resting her forehead on her knees, she tried not to cry. She had tried not to argue with him, but they argued anyway.

Bahamut appeared and sat beside her on the hill. "Are you okay?"

"I will be." Kaila dissolved her pyreflies, returning to her ghostly form. "He retains Shuyin's protective nature but completely rejects his foolish decisions. So, maybe he won't sprout horns and get into mischief the way Shuyin did."

"We left a fair amount of mischief intact, believe me. Take away too much of that, and he loses the personality traits he'll need to be accepted in the real world and survive the pilgrimage to the real Zanarkand. We need someone willing to break the temple's traditions, Lady Yunalesca's rituals, and Lord Yevon's spell of possession."

"I've thought about making another one like him, you know—one just for me. But I know now, it wouldn't be the same." Kaila wiped an eye and stood to face her friend. "No other illusion in this dream feels more real than he does. I'm going to miss him around here, but ... I think he's ready."

Bahamut sighed. "Then, you know what has to come next."

She nodded. "I know. He has a blitzball game tomorrow, but we have to derail it and point him toward the Abes earlier than he planned, _without_ using his mother's death as the catalyst. I have an idea. Let's go talk to Auron." Standing and picking up her heels, Kaila led the way down the hill and back toward the harbor.


	34. Chapter 34: Dreams Within Dreams

Chapter 34: Dreams Within Dreams

Tidus strolled home with his hands in his pockets and his gaze on the ground. When he reached the houseboat deck, he saw Auron sitting on the rail and gazing out over the ocean. "You know, I don't appreciate you sitting out here waiting for me like I have a date curfew."

"I'm sitting here because I like the view." Auron's long, thin ponytail stirred slightly in the midnight breeze. "Where is your date?"

"Heading home, I guess."

"She didn't have fun?" Auron reached into his pocket and drew out a memory sphere. He clicked it on and set it on the rail to record the view of the ocean at night, then discreetly turned it toward Tidus.

"She said she did, but …" Tidus shrugged.

"She dumped you?"

The teen frowned. "I have _never_ been dumped, thank you very much."

"I see."

"She just misses her old boyfriend."

Auron's brows rose in mild surprise. "Sounds like you could use a drink." The warrior monk set his earthenware jug of nog on the railing of the boat beside him.

Tidus blinked at the jug without moving toward it. "You're kidding, right?"

"It'll put hair on your chest. Unless you're not ready for that kind of thing yet," Auron commented over his shoulder, one brow raised.

Tidus was in just enough of a funk that he marched forward and accepted the challenge. Popping the cork, he took a mouthful and swallowed the sour-tasting stuff. He was surprised by a sweet aftertaste after he set the jug back down. However, he was even more surprised when the burn kicked in, making his throat, chest, and stomach feel like they were on fire. But as he coughed and choked on the strong drink, he could have sworn he saw Auron smirk.

Otherwise, the warrior monk ignored the teen's discomfort and looked back toward the sea. "Moderation is an important value, is it not?"

"What's that stuff made of? Bug poison? Shoe polish? Eye of newt?" Tidus coughed again and wiped his mouth, wishing he could get the taste off of his tongue.

"Supposedly drinking more will get rid of that first kick."

Tidus looked at the jug with doubt, but then drank another mouthful. Predictably, the same thing happened. He clenched his teeth at the burn that brought tears to his eyes and shook his head.

"Knowing when to distinguish between _logical_ and _illogical_ consequences is good, too. Logically, something which causes pain once will do it again. Have a seat and tell me what you did to this girl to make her dump you."

"What makes you think ..." Tidus's face suddenly felt hot and light. "… I'd want to sit down and tell you anything."

"The fact that you're going to hit the deck in about five seconds if you don't."

He had no sooner said it than the teen swayed backward and landed on his rear.

Auron quietly chuckled.

"Heh, heh, heh ..." Tidus imitated his laugh with disgust and pushed himself up on his hands and knees. Crawling to the rail, he pulled himself back to his feet. Then, feeling sick, he leaned over the top and draped his arms over the side. "You're supposed to be taking care of me, not getting me drunk."

"I'm not the one who caused your discomfort. You chose to drink two big mouthfuls of my special nog. I'm just pointing out that every action, or lack of action, has consequences. And taking responsibility for your choices is more helpful than placing blame."

"I'm not blaming anyone."

"But you feel angry? Resentful?"

"I told you already. She misses her old boyfriend."

"You remind her of him?"

Tidus quieted and closed his eyes, trying to quell the sick feeling in his stomach. "Yeah."

"In a good way, or in a bad way?"

"Well, it sounded like a good thing, but … I'm not good enough."

"Did she call out his name while you were in a moment of premature passion?"

Tidus lifted his chin to see that Auron wore a bemused expression. "You think you're funny, don't you, old man?"

"Not half as humorous as you are, kid." Auron offered his jug again. "Care for a third?"

Tidus took a third drink just to spite him. Once the burn passed, he snorted and looked at the ocean. Now, he really felt sick.

"So, what now? Do you want revenge?"

The thought of revenge felt good at first, but Tidus shook his head. "No."

"Wise choice. Revenge feeds on itself, creating a cycle that never ends."

"How would you know?"

"Revenge gave me this scar."

Tidus turned his attention toward Auron again. "Revenge because of a woman?"

Auron returned a cynical snort. "Depends on your definition of _woman_."

The youth gave up trying to figure out the monk's riddles. "I just don't understand how it could be a perfect night and end so abruptly like that. I even passed her stupid little test."

"Test?" Auron quirked a brow in curiosity.

"She started asking me questions about deep stuff. And she liked my answers. But as soon as I kissed her -"

"Maybe you're just a bad kisser."

"_I am not_," Tidus snapped. "I just wasn't _him_. And I can't be someone I'm not just to make someone else happy." Resting his elbow on the rail, chin-in-hand, he looked down into at the moon's light reflecting on the ripples of the black water gently lapping against the boat and dock.

"Was there anything you would have done differently?"

Reviewing the situation in his mind, Tidus shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Then, don't blame yourself." Auron lifted his jug, resting it expertly on his forearm, and drank a sip without even flinching. "Did you love her?"

Tidus reluctantly shook his head. "I liked her, but it was just one date."

"Then, nothing was lost." Auron set his jug back down. "Did you have a good time?"

Tidus considered their conversation and the fun that they had while it lasted. "Yeah."

"Then you made a good memory. There are other girls out there, you know."

The teen sighed heavily. "Yeah, I know." A small, but cocky grin curled his lips. "I might as well let them enjoy me, huh?"

Auron sighed and shook his head at that Jecht-like ego before offering the jug again. "How about another drink?"

"Pass." Tidus pushed the jug away. "I'm going to bed." Straightening, he headed toward the door, though he still felt unstable enough to wish he didn't have to release the rail to cross the deck. He paused halfway to the cabin and turned back to face the monk. "Oh, and by the way, if you ever insist on chaperoning my dates again by standing in my room like that, I _will _retaliate when you least expect it." Somewhat unsteady on his feet, he stumbled away and entered the houseboat.

))((

Auron chuckled and reached for the recording sphere to turn it off. Then, he tucked it into his pocket. "Just like his father … and yet … maybe not."

Kaila and Bahamut appeared at his side, and Kaila stepped forward with an apologetic expression. "I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt him."

"I'm not the one who needs the apology," Auron replied. "Although I'm surprised you told him about the kid that he was modeled after."

"I didn't tell him anything that would connect to Shuyin."

"He said you tested him."

"Yes. I wanted to see if he had different thoughts and opinions in matters that created serious problems for Shuyin. Based on his answers, I think Tidus is capable of being a good guardian without letting his impulses get the best of him and or carrying harmful guilt."

"I gave him my own test just now. He's not a drinker like his dad, so that's one less grief for his summoner to worry with. And he harbors no bad feelings toward you despite his hurt."

"Then, putting Kaila back into the pattern worked." Bahamut looked at her.

Kaila saddened. "Auron, I know I was supposed to be with him again tomorrow, but … I can't. It's too hard to be with him, but pretend I don't know him very well. We grew up together. And yet … he's just different enough from the person I once knew. I don't think the person he needs tomorrow is me. I think it's you."

The warrior monk was puzzled. "I wasn't here the first time his mother died. How can I be the constant in his pattern?"

"Her death is the event that forced him to quit school, join the Abes, and live independently. To stick close to that pattern, I think that means tomorrow Tidus has to lose you."

Auron grew quiet, clearly troubled.

Bahamut faced Kaila with worry. "Will Tidus be able to cope with that alone, if you're not there for him like you were with Shuyin?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "But if I were physically interactive, it would be easy to make excuses for holding onto him when I need to be letting go. And he won't miss this Zanarkand as much if there is no one here for him to come home to." Kaila took one last, longing glance toward the houseboat's cabin, then left.

))((

The next morning, Tidus woke feeling terrible. He mentally cursed Auron for offering him those drinks last night and lifted his head to see his alarm clock. It was past noon. Wasn't there something he had to do today? _Game_ ...

"Game!" Sitting up in bed, he threw off the covers and stumbled to his drawers to look for a uniform. But then he remembered he wouldn't be playing. He'd been benched. Maybe it was a good thing Kaila didn't want to come to the game if all he did was sit on the bench. Not wanting to dwell on his losses, Tidus checked the memo pad on the wall for the game time and decided to concentrate on getting rid of the aftereffects of the nog. Maybe eating something would help.

Tossing the uniform to the rumpled bed, he left his room for the kitchen. There, he buttered some bread and popped it into the mini-oven. After selecting the toast option, he poured himself some juice to rinse the awful fuzz from his tongue while he waited.

Auron pushed the door open and smirked at the teen's sleepy expression and messy hair. "And you only had three drinks. That's called a hangover, by the way."

"Ya think?" Tidus cast him a sarcastic glance to match his tone then clutched his head. "Gah, why didn't you stop me after the first one?"

"And miss seeing you like this?" Auron poured himself some juice and leaned against the counter.

"Would a healing potion get rid of it?"

"Should - if there's any left."

"Maybe I should go to the game early and get some from the first aid kit in the locker room." Tidus stretched his back and arms as he yawned, trying to bring his senses back into focus.

"There's still some in the bathroom cabinet. And you're not going to the game today." Auron scratched at his light beard scruff.

Tidus snapped out of his stretch. "I have to even if I'm benched. They'll kick me off the team if I miss games without a valid excuse. My grades have gone up since tutoring with Kaila, though, so I should be off the bench soon. Although she probably doesn't want to work with me anymore after last night." Discouraged, he pulled a chair out from the bar, flipped it around backward, and straddled it, folding his arms across the back and resting his forehead on them.

"That's not going to be a concern for you anymore. Today, you have to go get a job."

Tidus lifted his head. "A what?"

"A _job_," Auron repeated more clearly. "That thing that brings money in to pay for your food and docking rent."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to be leaving soon, and you need to be able to support yourself."

"But … I'm not even seventeen yet."

"Which is why you need to show me that you can handle being on your own before I go."

"But why do you have to go?"

"Other matters need my attention."

Tidus frowned at that vague answer. "That's it? After all these years, you're going to just walk out without any real explanation?"

"You knew this was coming. I warned you when you were thirteen. You have six months before your age bumps you into ownership responsibilities for this boat. If you don't want to lose your home, you have to get a job."

"Nobody's going to hire me. The only thing I'm any good at is blitzball, but nobody will even consider me for a professional slot at this age," Tidus argued.

"The Abes might."

"Because I'm _Jecht Jr._?" His father was the one thing that still got under his skin rather than rolling off of his back. "You expect me to be like him, don't you? Just like everyone else ... I thought you were different, but you know what? You're just like him. Go ahead and walk away because _I don't need anyone_ watching over me anymore." Tidus stood from the chair and slammed it back against the bar. The mini-oven dinged, letting him know his toast was ready. As he retrieved his breakfast, his fingers accidentally hit the rack. Jerking his hand back with a mild wince, he pinched his toast from the grill anyway and transferred it to his plate. Glowering at Auron, he took his breakfast out of the kitchen to eat alone in the livingroom instead.

))((

Auron sighed, remembering the little boy who burnt his fingers and fussed at him for not giving him a bandage. This time, he had to allow Tidus to endure the sting by himself. "It's going to be a long year," he groaned to the Fayth as they appeared before him.

Kaila sympathized with the warrior monk's unease at purposefully pushing Tidus away. "You won't have to endure the whole year. This time flow will go quickly like the rest, as soon as he is established in a regular pattern again." She placed a hand on the guardian's shoulder. "He'll forgive you, Auron. He can't see it right now, but you're not abandoning him the way Jecht did."

Bahamut added. "Tidus's physical training is of utmost importance now, and he needs to learn how to take the initiative in prioritizing. It's the final step toward his exit."

Auron nodded, accepting their wisdom where their creation was concerned. That afternoon, Auron took Tidus to the Abes management offices to speak to the head coach and owner of the professional league team. Following Shuyin's pattern, they rejected Tidus _until_ he begrudgingly dropped his father's name. Then, following a private invitation for team tryouts, based on his extraordinary talent, they gave him a full-time slot as right forward.

With Tidus's physical training secured, Auron began the gradual process of backing away from the management of the houseboat. This led to a lot of arguments over minor things, and Auron eventually moved out. He returned to check on his almost-grown charge once a day, then once a week. But in the end, he promised occasional visits, and then the warrior monk left as mysteriously as he came.

))((

Naya stuck her head out the door and raised her fingers to her lips to give a piercing whistle. "Listen up, everyone! We've only got a few minutes before the game starts! Who wants an autograph from Jecht Jr.?"

Inside the hallway, Tidus frowned. "I have my own name."

"Doesn't matter. You're new, and you're the son of a legend. Smile, look pretty, and do your sphere kick. They'll love you, even if you mess up. Have fun while you can because once you become yesterday's news, they won't tolerate screw-ups and losing streaks. Fans are the most devoted, yet hardest critics of all." She grinned as anxious blitzball fans ran down the ramp to meet him and ask for autographs. "Sorry, only time for a few. We'll drag him to the Waterwall sports bar in the Neon District after the game. The rest of you can get a piece of him there." Naya shut the door to keep the crowd size under control.

"What?"

Naya casually strolled back to him. "This will get your mind off the nerves. Trust me." The woman folded her arms over her short, yellow vest and leaned against the wall behind her to wait.

"Have fun," he told himself. It was something important he had told himself a long time ago - something he had forgotten recently. Accepting pen and paper from one of the fans, he gave the boy a smile and signed his name. "There you go."

The boy squinted at the signature. "Tidus? You're the guy that took Zak's place, right?"

"You can actually read my handwriting? My language arts teacher said it sucked."

"Well, it still sucks, but I can read it."

"Oh."

"You look really young for a pro player." Another fan handed him a paper.

"Well, I guess I kind of ... am." He signed his name and returned it.

))((

Bahamut watched unseen from the sidelines, knowing he would have been next in line. Shuyin had signed his ball with a note to Lenne, but Lenne couldn't be a part of this re-enactment, and neither could he. As much as he wished he could talk and interact with Tidus the way he used to with Shuyin, Bahamut now had to remove himself from Tidus's time flow the way Kaila had. But doing so made him feel like he lost a big brother and a good friend. It seemed silly to cry at a happy event like the opening game of the blitzball season. So the boy poked a finger at the moisture collecting in the corner of his eye. But a moment later, he felt Kaila slip an arm across his shoulders to give him a supportive pat. And together, they watched the final stage of their ripple ricochet in unpredictable directions.

))((

Tidus straightened after signing autographs and noticed the tall man in the red haori at the side of the crowd. His last days with Auron had been full of tension, and Tidus had not seen him in a couple of months, yet here he was at the opening of his first professional game. "You came. You actually came," he said in disbelief as he approached Auron in the crowd.

Auron gave the young man a tolerant sigh as if he never should have doubted him.

Feeling awkward for a moment, Tidus recovered with an optimistic gin. "Want my autograph?"

"Unless you're signing a paycheck over to me, I'm not interested."

Tidus smirked at the monk's familiar dry humor. "Hey, you want to come with us to the Waterwall after we win?"

"That sounds pretty confident."

"The Abes were last year's champions, and the only difference in the roster this year is me. And I'm pretty good if I do say so. Well, at least I'm not a _bad_ player, or I wouldn't have made it on the team, right?"

"What if you lose?"

"We'll have fun anyway," Tidus insisted. "We'll get some dinner, pick up a few girls, go dancing ..." He did his little victory dance, which made the girls in the crowd around him giggle. "See? They think it's a great idea." He faced the girls. "Anyone want to go with us?"

"I do! I do!"

"Me!

"Me, me!"

Auron rolled his eyes. "My idea of fun and your idea of fun are two very different things."

"You can't dance, can you?" Tidus teased. "That's okay. I'll let you have all the older women, so you won't have to work so hard to keep pace with me."

"Hmph."

"Oh, come on, Auron. Don't be such a stiff."

"Time's up! Sorry, but the game's about to begin!" Naya announced, ushering the fans back out.

"Waterwall after the game," Tidus reminded him, then waved to the crowd before following his teammate back behind closed doors to get ready for the start of the game.

))((

The fans behind the stadium ran for their seats, but the two Fayth followed Auron below the sphere pool to stand in a remote corner to watch the game. Bahamut knew the Abes would lose their first match, so he couldn't help but think about Tidus's comments as they waited for the opening ceremony to begin. "His arrogance still worries me," he commented above the music blaring over the stadium's speakers.

"It's Jecht-itis," Auron muttered. "A genetic personality disorder that breeds overconfidence. The only thing that can cure it is an angry shoopuff, a mouthful of shoopuff milk, and …" The warrior monk quieted as he looked to the stadium where his old friend once played. "And the realization that you've lost your home and the people you love."

"Losing was always hard for Shuyin. He was such a perfectionist when it came to his games," Bahamut remembered. "The Abes lost to the Duggles once because he went for a long shot, rather than passing to the guy behind him. He was really low that night, but then some drunk mouthed off to him. Shuyin lost control and hit him pretty hard. He doesn't look that strong, but pound for punch, he could pack a wallop. We will need to interrupt that incident. If his teammates hadn't invited him to dinner after the loss, Shuyin would have gone home, so maybe erasing that invitation will be enough to avoid it. Tidus doesn't need that memory floating around in his head."

"Jecht lost his self-control a few times, but only when he was drinking. Since Tidus doesn't seem to share his father's affection for alcohol, that shouldn't be a problem for him."

"Self-control doesn't seem to be an issue for him," Kaila agreed, remembering her conversation with him on the hill. "Overconfidence, however, especially with physical challenges and girls …"

"If he ever becomes overconfident around Yuna, I'll bring him down so fast it'll make his head spin." Auron gave her a cautionary side-glance. "I made a promise to her father, too."

Bahamut looked to Auron. "You would stay with him after we release him into reality?"

"My promise doesn't end until he does."

The two Fayth at the unsent man's side knew well enough what he meant.

"I owe Jecht that much for taking my place as the Final Aeon. I owe Tidus that much so that he doesn't feel abandoned to his fate."

Bahamut frowned. "The night Shuyin got into that fight … it was ten years to the day that Jecht disappeared. They made a big deal out of it over the loudspeakers during the game. Maybe that's why his game was in a funk - the high expectations of playing like his father."

The game's opening ceremonies began, and the three spirits turned their attention to the sphere pool where the lights suddenly come on. Cheers grew louder than the music. Tidus had just stepped into place for the throw-in, and the crowd was excited to see that Jecht's son was playing.

))((

Later in the season, after his first major failure in the game against the Duggles, Tidus exited the back rooms of the stadium without a word to autograph seekers. Thankfully, there weren't many still hanging around, but this time, thanks to Bahamut, his teammates didn't invite him to dinner afterward. Without having bothered to shower or change into something dry, Tidus walked home alone.

He had no sooner arrived and dropped his duffle bag, however, when someone knocked on his front door. Choking back the frustration he'd been fighting since half-time, he hastily wiped at the tears burning his eyes and drew a breath to appear more presentable before opening the door.

"Can I come in?" Auron greeted him.

Tidus was stunned to see the warrior monk had returned, but turning back around, he left the door open so that Auron could come or go as he pleased. At the bottom of the ramp leading up to the door, he stopped and gave a tired stretch as if nothing were wrong. "What do you want?"

Auron came inside the door and stopped. "It was a bad call. Your team lost because of you."

"You came to say _that_?"

"It's been ... ten years." Closing the door, the warrior monk came down the ramp, and Bahamut followed, unseen to Tidus's eyes. "I thought you'd be crying."

"Who, me?" Tidus acted as if he didn't know what Auron was talking about.

Bahamut was relieved to see how quickly Tidus managed to hold his emotions under control, despite the disheartening loss and guilt. But it was still hard to see him like this. If Shuyin were here, he could have slopped some polymer goop in his face to make him laugh, but Bahamut had no idea how to cheer Tidus. Tidus was usually able to cheer himself. But not tonight. The boy decided it was time to break his own rules about contact. So he ran to the ramp and revealed his presence. "You cried."

Tidus turned at the sound of the boy's voice, just in time to see him disappear. Blinking in disbelief, he scanned the living room.

Auron, though surprised that the Fayth chose to reveal his presence, however brief, pretended not to see. Instead, he reached behind himself and shut the door. "You were trying to do that shot, weren't you? For Jecht?"

"No way." Tidus waved it off like it was nothing. "I gave up on that shot a long time ago. It's just not my style." He scratched his head, clearly puzzled about whether or not he really saw a little boy in his living room.

Auron quirked a brow at his behavior. "Something wrong?"

"A creepy little kid was standing here one minute, and the next, he was gone."

Bahamut frowned slightly and chose to reappear again, startling him. "Perhaps he's your conscience reminding you that it's rude to call someone creepy."

"Ah!" Tidus jumped back, but the boy faded once more. "There! Did you see him that time?"

Auron kept a straight face. "You're tired. Perhaps you should go to bed early tonight and get some rest."

"Look, I'm not losing my mind," Tidus insisted. "A little kid was standing right there! He's the same one that shows up in my dreams - only this time I'm awake!"

Bahamut had been silently snickering into his hands at his little prank, which Shuyin would have loved. But at the mention of dreams, he stiffened and stared at Tidus, stunned. He cast a glance over his shoulder to where Kaila stood quietly at the door, but she met his questioning look with a bewildered shrug.

"You have dreams?" Auron asked.

Tidus was mildly offended. "Of course, I have dreams. Doesn't everyone?"

Auron chose his words more carefully. "Are they new dreams? Or do they feel like strange memories? Can you remember much about them?" Maybe they had not been as successful as they thought at redirecting his soul's former thoughts.

Looking around the room in uncertainty, Tidus explained. "Well ... I see that kid's face. That's how it always starts. And then I feel like I need to go somewhere, but I can never reach it. But then it switches from me running toward this place that's out of reach, to me running away from something chasing me."

Auron frowned slightly. "What are you running from?"

Tidus shook his head. "I don't know. But when I stop running, I see my old man's face. And then I ... I change."

"Change?"

"I feel myself changing into some kind of ... sea serpent," he admitted with a small laugh as if he felt foolish saying it. "It's crazy, I know. I mean there's this big, long tail and these water-wing type fins and my blitz-guard and gloves turn into these clawed ..." Tidus held his hands before him like claws, but paused as he met Auron's gaze. "Anyway, I just get this feeling about it when I wake up. Like I'm glad it was a just a dream, you know?"

_ He dreams new dreams_.

The Fayth looked to each other with shock and concern. Their illusion could dream. They had succeeded at creating a living sacrifice out of a dead soul to deceive Yu Yevon. He could grow like a human and think for himself. And now … he could dream. They should have been happy. Instead, they understood Tidus's dream and were grateful that he did not.

Tidus could tell by the look on Auron's face that perhaps he shouldn't have said anything. Lowering his hands, he absently scratched an arm instead. "Sorry. I … didn't mean to weird out on you." He tried to change his mood. "Hey, how about we hit the Waterwall tonight for a late dinner! I haven't eaten yet - my treat. They pay me more than your stingy allowance ever did," he joked to the warrior monk.

"Waterwall is closed tonight," Auron lied.

"Closed?" Tidus's nose crinkled. "They never close."

"There was a nasty fight at the bar, and someone got hurt. They had to close."

"Oh. Well, how about we grill some fish?"

"Not tonight. I just wanted to check in with you. I can't stay long."

"Oh." Tidus nodded in somber acceptance.

"Are you going to be all right?" Auron cautiously asked.

"Yeah. The silence just … gets a little heavy sometimes," he admitted. "Not that I miss you mooching off of me or anything," he added to cover his disappointment.

Auron glanced toward the door where the Fayth stood. "I'd better be going, then."

"Right." Tidus walked with him to the door and opened it for him. "Come to my next game, and maybe we can have dinner then."

Auron knew better than to make that promise. "We'll see." He paused, wanting to say more, but then he turned and left. At the end of the pier, he checked to be sure Tidus remained inside with the door shut before speaking to the two Fayth who followed. "He saw himself change into an aeon, didn't he? Did he see himself turning into Sin?"

Bahamut materialized, and he was worried. "I don't know. Tidus doesn't even know what an aeon is … unless Shuyin's memories are seeping through. But none of Lenne's aeons were sea serpents."

"Maybe he somehow absorbed our intentions toward him." Kaila materializing on Auron's other side as they continued walking away from the docks. "We've spent a lot of time with him in this dream, and he's made of dream magic."

"What if it's not just our projections? What if this really is a premonition of things to come for him? Does that mean he'll be changed into the Final Aeon to _defeat_ Sin, ... or _become_ Sin?"

"Are you changing your mind about sending him out there?" Auron challenged.

"Auron?" Kaila stopped walking. "What have we become? We're trying to stop Yevon from sacrificing summoners and their guardians, yet … we've created Tidus to be a sacrifice, too."

"You didn't think anything about sacrificing his father." Auron frowned, remembering his friend.

"Jecht was just an illusion. We didn't know he had regained his soul until after Yevon tried to take it. I know he seemed real to you, but when we sent him to Braska, he wasn't. Tidus already has a real soul because Shuyin was real. And if he can dream about his aeon form, maybe he has a real conscience, too—his own conscious, instead of Shuyin's. If he's actually _changed_ Shuyin's soul to make it his own, doesn't that make him _alive_ somehow? What if he's no longer Shuyin at all? What if that makes him unable to resist Yevon the way we hoped? It would be pointless and cruel to send him out there if his chances are no better than Jecht's. And yet ... we can't keep him trapped in this dream forever if he's _real_."

"He's not real, Kaila. He can't be real," Bahamut argued though he seemed to be arguing more with himself than her.

"Then _what_ is he?" Kaila challenged.

"His soul experienced a previous death, so technically he is still part of Shuyin's spirit. He does seem to have his own opinions, goals, and desires, even if they aren't Shuyin's. But none of that changes the fact that he's made of magic. In fact, I honestly can't picture Tidus being willing to bow to Yevon because he doesn't know or care who Yevon is. You know? Maybe that's enough."

Auron frowned at their indecision. "Jecht should be told. Tidus may be your champion against Yevon, but illusion or not, he's still Jecht's son." Upset, the unsent guardian turned and walked away.


	35. Chapter 35: Get Real

Chapter 35: Get Real

Day was turning into dusk when Auron rolled up the cuffs of his pants and waded into the ocean, leaving his coat, boots, and sword on the sand at the beach. "Jecht ..." The sea looked empty, but the law of convention in this illusory world was based upon what one wanted to see ... to shape that vision by summoning particles of magic. Auron was not a Fayth or a summoner. He could only express what he desired. "Jecht, if you can hear me—if you're able—please answer. We need to talk." There was no need to yell. Sound was an illusion here, too.

An enormous mirage solidified on the horizon of the ocean, and a faint apparition appeared before it, striding toward him. Jecht's spirit was thinner than before, and his mood seemed more somber—evidence that his resistance to Yevon's possession was taking a toll. "Long time, no see, old friend."

Auron smiled and held out a memory sphere.

"What's this?" Jecht tried to accept, but his hands passed through it.

Saddened to see his friend so consumed by another being, the warrior monk brushed his thumb against the activation button for him. The discussion with Tidus about his disappointing date began to play.

Jecht stared at the sphere, speechless for a moment before finding his voice again. "Is that … him?"

Auron nodded.

With a dry smirk and a subdued mood, Jecht commented, "He's so much taller now. I wouldn't have recognized him if he didn't look so much like his mother." He tried again to take hold of the sphere but became frustrated when his fingers couldn't grasp it. Giving up, he sniffled away a trace of moisture burning his eyes. "Why are you feeding my kid that poison of yours?" he angrily demanded. "It took me fifteen years and force-fed shoopuff milk to stop drinking."

Jecht's scolding, though more typical, was obviously a cover for the sense of loss he was feeling, so Auron responded in a reassuring tone. "I don't think we have to worry about his drinking habits. Girls are another matter." He tapped the sphere.

"Oh, I already talked to him about that as soon as he was old enough to ask questions."

"Well, I had to talk to him about it again," Auron unhappily reported. "Sometimes he doesn't listen the first time ... just like someone else I know."

Jecht chuckled low, guilty as charged. "How old is he now?"

"Seventeen, and ... it's time."

The blitzball player's amusement softened to a small, somber nod.

"There's something you should know, though. Tidus has had dreams of himself turning into the Final Aeon—a sea serpent of some kind. But the fact that he can dream at all … The Fayth believe he somehow fashioned Shuyin's soul into his own unique conscience. Tidus is ... alive, in a sense. He's more than a memory following a revised script."

Jecht made a face. "You mean … I really do have two sons now?"

"Yes … and no. The Fayth say he's fundamentally the same kid, but they admit there's something very different about this one. I never knew your son before any of this, so I can't offer my opinion on that. But I've been around Tidus long enough now to say that his thoughts and feelings are every bit as human as our own."

Jecht looked down at the image in the sphere. "Does he know he's just an illusion?"

Auron shook his head. "If he's going to do this, he needs to learn about Spira first. Then, we'll tell him about you ... and himself."

Jecht seemed to understand the reasoning behind that decision.

"There is one more thing you should know. The summoner that the Fayth chose to help ... It's Yuna."

"_Braska's_ Yuna?"

"She's training in Besaid."

Jecht turned away and stared at the shell of the large aeon he had become. "I don't want to hurt them."

"Then don't."

"It's the only way."

"He's your son."

Jecht faced him with stern remorse. "If we can't break the cycle, Yevon will claim his soul after I'm released. If we can't break the cycle, little Yuna will end up like her father, though he gave his life to save her. If we fail, she won't get a second chance."

Auron reluctantly agreed. "Then, you need to take him to Besaid. Can you do that?"

"I'll try, but my days as captain of this 'ship' are numbered. Time slips through my fingers now, and I have no memories of where it goes."

The warrior monk didn't know what to say.

"Don't forget to give the boy my sword."

"I'll be sure he gets it, although I'm not sure he'll know how to use it. The Fayth are betting that Shuyin's skills as a former guardian will surface, but Tidus never met Shuyin's girlfriend, so he never experienced those memories."

"Then maybe we should train the boy first," Jecht suggested with a bittersweet smile.

))((

"Braska's daughter has completed her apprenticeship." At the summit of Mt. Gagazet, overlooking the ruins, Valefor stood before all of the gathered Fayth. "Lady Yuna is almost ready to attempt her first summoning, but people have spotted Sin moving south toward Bikanel Island. I hear their prayers at the temple. They're begging to be spared this time and renewing their vows to Yevon in hopes that this time the Calm will be eternal." She paused, disheartened. The other Fayth stationed at the other temples nodded and mumbled in agreement. Their villagers were beginning to fear the inevitable, too. Valefor faced Bahamut. "If the illusion is to be of any help, we must send him to her now."

"How is the illusion progressing?" Ixion asked. "Is it ready?"

"_Tidus_," Kaila brusquely corrected. "His name is Tidus."

Bahamut flashed Kaila a frown from within the shadows of his hood, reminding her not to take their impersonal comments so personally. The rest of the Fayth didn't know Tidus the way they did. "We've patched together seventeen years of experiences, based on Shuyin's memories, in a manner that will hopefully avoid the mistakes that ended his life and are keeping him unsent. Tidus feels resentment toward his father, and that should help him defeat Sin. But there is one thing we didn't plan on: he says he can dream. Memories can't dream new dreams. But … maybe old souls with new experiences can. We think Tidus has somehow developed his own consciousness apart from Shuyin's. It's almost as if he's ... real."

"An illusion can never be real, Bahamut," Shiva reminded him. "Regardless of appearances, he is still just particles of magic bonded to a dead soul and blinded by lies."

"Are flesh and blood the only things that determine what's real?" Kaila challenged. "We don't have real bodies anymore, but we're real. Rocks and trees are real, but they don't express thoughts and feelings. If Tidus believes he is real, maybe that's all that really matters."

Shiva smiled apologetically. "That he turned out so well is a testimony to your dedication and his will. But what I meant is ... his true composition is what matters toward his purpose."

"But it's not _his_ purpose," Kaila argued. "It's _ours_. And if he's a real soul, should we be using him this way against his knowledge? Isn't that what Yevon did to us?"

"Does Jecht know?" Ifrit asked.

"Auron told him," Bahamut answered.

"What did he say?"

Bahamut looked to Kaila, sharing her uncertainty. "Jecht said to go ahead."

"Then, I agree with Jecht. The cycle must be broken. But no ordinary sacrifice, human or spirit, is strong enough to cast off Yevon's possession. If Tidus's unique composition can resist that spell, then he, like his father before him, is our best option for saving current and future generations. We can't force him to become the Fayth of the next Final Aeon. But if he understands what will happen without his sacrifice, maybe he can be persuaded to make our purpose his own."

Bahamut saddened but could not argue with Ifrit's reasoning.

Kaila started to cry.

Another Fayth moved from the back of the gathering to the front. "It sounds like you've done an exceptional job creating this illusion. You've invested so much of yourselves in the attention to small details, it's understandable you would think of your creation as a real person. It hurts to give him up like this, even if this is the reason you made him."

Kaila looked up in surprise. "Lord Zaon? I thought …"

The golden guardian acknowledged her with a gentle smile. "You thought correctly. I am at rest now, so I cannot leave the Farplane for long. But Ixion visited the Fayth at rest to let us know what was happening. You see, some of us still have a stake in this pilgrimage. I miss my wife. She is unsent like Shuyin. But where he became bitter, she is now cold. Both cling to people they've loved and lost. But if they cannot learn to let go of that pain, they will never find peace. Yunalesca must be made to rest, or she will feed her father's hunger for revenge forever. She is as much a part of the cycle as Sin and Lord Yevon. Your illusion will have to slay more than one unsent soul infected with grief before he is done. He will have to slay my wife."

Neither Bahamut nor Kaila—nor any other Fayth present—considered how Zaon might feel about their end game. The famous guardian's unexpected appearance silenced those around him.

"Your illusion needs to believe he is real so that he can experience real life and value it. He must learn to value the people trapped in this never-ending spiral of death, so that when the time comes, he can let go and do what's necessary to free them."

"Then …" Bahamut wiped away a tear that trickled down his cheek. "Will you help us give him the extra pyreflies needed to make him feel real outside the dream?"

"I will do all that I can. We all will. Where is he now?"

"Practicing on the beach for the upcoming tournament."

"Hm …" Zaon rubbed his chin. "Bevelle attacked Zanarkand during that tournament. Lord Yevon would never allow those memories to be replayed here, would he?"

Bahamut smiled in a soft, sly manner as the Fayth headed down the mountain to summon more pyreflies for Tidus while he slept. "Bevelle won't be attacking Zanarkand this time. Jecht will."

))((

The night of the Jecht Cup Memorial Tournament, Tidus donned his uniform with black shorts and a yellow hoodie, then stuffed some street clothes into his duffle bag for the post-game celebration. But when he exited his boathouse, a small crowd of blitzball fans were already waiting for him on the pier. He'd never had fans waiting outside of his house before. At first, he didn't know what to think of it. Then, he decided he liked it. No more heavy silence.

He signed a few blitzballs and flirted with a few girls, but then tried to go on his way when some of the children in the crowd begged him to teach them his famous game shots. "Hey, I got a game to play," he tried to excuse himself.

"Then teach us after!" one insisted.

"Maybe tonight ...um ...well..." He cast a glance back toward the two girls he had flirted with earlier. This choice was a no-brainer. He just had to make up an excuse to ditch the kids for the girls.

Before he could open his mouth again, Bahamut came forward from the back of the crowd and materialized before him. "You can't tonight."

Tidus blinked at the boy for a mute minute. Was he real this time? Or was he imagining him again? "I mean ... tomorrow," he told the children, trying not to let the questions popping into his mind show in his confident expression.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The kids gave him a blitzball salute, and he laughed and waved as he walked away. Tidus looked for the hooded boy again, but he was already gone. Bothered, but not frustrated, the blitzball player shrugged it off and continued on his way.

He paused under one of the high-rises to look up at the electronic billboard with his father's picture on it. Then, he gave it a cynical snort and ran toward the stadium. People from all over Zanarkand had come to see the tournament, and as he approached the front gate, hundreds of screaming fans swarmed him. He had never seen so many!

"Make way, make way! Coming through! Sorry! Hey, I'm gonna be late!" His shirt was snagged by multiple hands as he tried to squeeze past. "Hey, let go of me!" he half-laughed, enjoying every minute of the event's big turnout.

At the force field gate, he flashed an identification card that allowed him to pass through before it solidified again. Safely inside the stadium, he shook out his unruly blond hair, drew a breath, and headed down into the locker room. Going straight to his locker, he hung his duffle bag on the door and dug out his street clothes and sneakers, placing them on the shelf. "That crowd out there is nuts," he commented to Naya. "Why did they lock them out? I could barely reach the gate."

"Well, apparently they were trying to sneak into places they had no business sneaking into—like back here. Half of those fangirls didn't come to watch the game. They just want to see our poster boy wiggle his little ass when he makes a goal."

He acted mildly offended. "Are you mocking me?"

"Oh, please," Kyril commented from her locker. "You enjoy the attention, or you'd complain about it." She and Naya laughed as they imitated his trademark victory dance.

Tidus laughed it off. Okay, so maybe he did enjoy the attention ... just a little.

"Toma! He's here!" Naya called toward the back stairs.

"It's about time," Toma called from the top of the stairs where he was recording the pre-game activities near the sphere pool. "Hey, Jecht Jr., since it's your first time up for the Jecht Cup, they've decided you're the one greeting the fans and throwing the ball into the sphere pool tonight—to honor your dad, and all that."

"Yeah, be careful not to throw out an arm giving that ball a toss, or we might just have to bench you," Kiryl sarcastically added from the stairs.

The other players chuckled.

"Well, in that case, I'll throw it in some sissy underhanded manner like you would." Tidus smirked as he checked his blitz gloves and shoes.

More laughter and a few "ooohs" came from his teammates as they kidded each other out of their pre-game jitters.

When he was done checking his uniform, Tidus checked his gameplay notebook and shoved it back in his locker, along with the empty duffle bag. Then he locked the door and inspected his shoulder guard to be sure it was strapped on tight. With only a few minutes to go, he went to one of the shower stalls and stood under a stream of cold water for a few seconds, hoping the temperature shock would help him focus.

As soon as he stepped out, his coach approached and passed the blitzball to him, giving his back a proud slap. "No daredevil stunts up on the axis this time. Keep it clean and safe. You'll have plenty of opportunity for stunts in the pool." He paused before walking away. "Oh, um … you didn't happen to work on that little trick that we talked about, did you?"

"I can't do it," Tidus told him again.

"Okay, no problem." His coach smiled, understanding. "Just thought that would be a cool surprise to show off for the Jecht Cup finals."

Tidus left his coach, climbed the stairs, and waded through the calf-high water of the sphere pool's central axis to sit on the support bridge with a sigh. Tucking the ball between his feet and under the seat, he took one look at the distant signs of life surrounding him in the dark, enormous stadium, then he leaned his head back against the wall of the axis and closed his eyes to wait.

"Are you nervous?" Toma asked, still recording.

"Nah, just thinking of what I'm going to rename that cup once it's ours."

Toma chuckled and headed back to the stairs to leave their star player alone with his pre-game thoughts and join the team huddle.

The noise of the crowd fell silent to Tidus's ears until the only thing he heard was the beating of his own heart. Tonight, his game had to be flawless. Tonight, he had to be Jecht's son, just for one night. _No ..._ His eyes opened as the axis machina started to hum. _Tonight belongs to me. I own this pool now, Old Man, and I can win this thing if you stay out of it. That's the only thing that matters tonight—a win_."

The lights flashed on, and the music started, letting everyone know that it was time for the game to begin. The crowd roared as a water spell was generated in the center of the bowl-shaped arena floor. The vertical axis ring lifted as the cybernet activated, and the stadium dome split, unfolding and opening to the stars. On cue, Jecht Jr. stood from his resting place on the central axis and stepped up on one of the small, raised platforms within the machina ring. Blitzball tucked underhand, he was the center of attention to thousands of adoring fans.

The water spell finished forming with dramatic flare, the laser lines blinked on inside the pool, and the scoreboard lit up. His introduction to the crowd was drowned out, but everyone knew who he was anyway, so it didn't matter.

))((

Auron took the lift to the roof of one of the tallest buildings on the eastern outskirts of the city. There, he paced, waiting until a swell of ocean rose behind him. Lifting his jug of nog in greeting, he drank a toast to their effort. Then, he headed back down to the streets.

The warrior monk walked calmly toward the stadium, though fans of the game ran toward it with excitement. Nobody noticed that behind them, the spires of the city were elongating and twisting in a surreal manner. As buildings were sucked into the vortex between reality and the realm of magic, nobody noticed the massive ball of water drawing the tide from the sea into the sky.

))((

The ball was already in play. Tidus broke free from a tackle and punched another player with such force that he sent him right through the cyber-net that held the water of the pool in its spherical shape. His opponent hit the concrete buffer between the balcony and the row below it, then dropped head-first onto the laps of the people beneath him. The Abes scored the first point of the game.

Back in play, the ball was passed multiple times before someone shot it high into the air above the water dome. Tidus swam toward the surface and broke through like a leaping dolphin. Soaring high, he arched back in one fluid movement to kick it back in, but before he could complete the impossible shot, his upside-down view of the night sky revealed the surprise arrival of a monstrous sphere of water floating in the sky. It fired multiple missiles, and explosions ripped through the city's horizon.

Seconds later, all of the foundations of the floating islands on the waterfront were hit. The force of the explosions sent a tidal wave crashing down over Zanarkand, demolishing everything in its path, including the stadium. Towers erupted in one explosion after another until the enormous tidal wave formed by the attack crashed down on the city in a macabre attempt to put out the flames with a flood.

The sphere pool collapsed while Tidus was still above it, but when he started to fall, he caught hold of the vertical axis high above the open arena. As he struggled to hang on, Zanarkand began to crumble and wash away right before his eyes. The stadium swayed as it began to sink, and when a second explosion rocked the building, his fingers slipped. The blitzball player fell into the dark, cold seawater filling the flooded arena below. Fear and confusion rushed through Tidus's mind as he tried to figure out what was happening. He could see that the stands were littered with the bodies of the drowned or otherwise injured victims, but strangely, all of their bodies floated away in puffs of colored light.

He left the grisly scene toward the crowded exit where people were pushing and shoving to get out before their lung capacity failed. Tidus tried to weave his way to the front. He intended to help them reach the surface if they would just let him through, but they, too, began to disperse into sparkles of colored light. Panicked, he made his way to the exit and climbed up on the sinking platform.

Finally, he stumbled through the broken gate while it was still above the water and headed down the steps. There, he spotted a familiar face a short distance away. "Auron! What are you doing here?"

"I was waiting for you."

Tidus couldn't believe the man stood there so calmly when all hell was breaking loose around them. "What are you talking about?" Tidus watched Auron walk away from the stadium. Not quite knowing what else to do, he followed.

People raced past them, frantic to escape the destruction. The city continued to ignite and collapse into the ocean.

Tidus had a hard time keeping an eye on Auron in all the madness. Then, suddenly, everything stopped—everything except him. A fear even greater than what he felt hanging high above the stadium crept over him, sending shivers up his spine as he looked around, trying to make sense of the stop-motion blur.

"It begins," someone spoke behind him.

Tidus turned around. Sure enough, it was the kid from his dream—his nightmare. "Wha—"

"Don't cry," Bahamut apologetically encouraged before unfreezing the time flow and disappearing again.

Tidus's heart raced as the world fell apart in chaos around him. "What the ...? Hey! Wait!" He spotted Auron again and ran down the highway to meet him. Auron was heading straight toward the worst of the destruction, toward the ocean. "Hey, not this way!"

"Look." Auron guided Tidus's eyes up toward the large ball of water hanging over the city. "We called it Sin."

Tidus stepped back in wide-eyed awe. Whatever it was, it looked like it was made of the same magical water that made up the arches that rose above the city to mark the entrance to the port. "Sin?" As he watched, it ejected a large black squid-like fiend and hundreds of small clam-like spawn all around it, and they rushed to take over the city. Attention drawn from one monstrosity to another, Tidus's breath caught in his throat as he was quickly surrounded by the large, insect-like things. He tried fighting them off with his bare hands as they snapped and jumped at him, but then he fell back and was nearly stampeded.

"Take it." Auron offered a sword.

Tidus hesitantly accepted and gazed at its beauty for a moment, raising it high before its weight nearly pulled him back down to the ground.

"A gift from Jecht," the warrior monk added.

"My old man?" Tidus couldn't picture his father training with a sword. He attempted to use the blade against one of the Sin spawn and promptly fell backward again, but he pushed himself back up with determination.

"I hope you know how to use it."

Tidus tried again with a short hop and slammed the sword through the fiend. Its body disappeared into a swarm of pyre flies. But as soon as he took one creature out, another dropped into its place.

"These ones don't matter. We cut through!" Auron instructed. "Don't bother going after all of them. Cut the ones that matter, and run!"

Once they sliced their way through the barricade of smaller Sin spawn, they ran toward the larger fiend producing them. Tidus wondered why Auron was leading him toward these things instead of running away from them. It didn't make sense. None of this did. But at least the sword became easier to manage the more he swung it. Frustrated at not getting past the large fiend, he sprang forward in a cartwheel flip to put extra strength behind his strike and was surprised by the move's success and the kill. As the body dissipated, the path opened for them to keep running.

He couldn't help but look up at the billboard once more when they ran past it. "What are you laughing at, old man?" Was it how he fought? Or was it the fact that he was trying to use a sword at all? "Auron! Let's get out of here!"

Still ridiculously calm, Auron looked around. "We're expected."

"Huh?"

The warrior monk ran toward the worst of the chaos again.

"Gimme a break, man!" Tidus complained. But he continued to follow.

More spawn landed in front of them and behind them, sandwiching them between an impossible number of fiends.

"Hmph. This could be bad." Auron spotted a wrecked, machina fuel drum on the side of the highway and pointed to it. "That—knock it down!"

"What?"

"Trust me. You'll see."

Though he wasn't sure why the warrior monk wanted him to target the fuel drum instead, Tidus hit the line that kept it hooked on the side rail. Spines flew from the flickering wings of the creatures, spraying into his arms and legs like large needles. Gasping at the pain, he continued hacking through the fuel chain. When the line between the barrels was finally severed, he jumped back just in time to avoid a nasty explosion. The combustible contraption fell from the bridge and hit the bottom supports, blowing up the fiends, the bridge, and the building next to it.

"Go!" Auron shouted, running as the bridge collapsed beneath them.

When the warrior monk pointed up, Tidus lifted his gaze and jumped with a leap meant for sphere shots. His fingers caught part of a broken road that had been torn and twisted toward the sky. But as he hung there, struggling to pull himself further up, he wondered how in the world Auron thought this would save them? They were trapped now with nowhere else to go.

Auron climbed the side of the broken road and crossed the top toward Tidus, but he didn't immediately offer assistance.

"Auron!" Tidus's fingers and arms ached, but his position was at too much of a disadvantage to pull himself up. "Auron!"

Behind them, Zanarkand was disappearing into the sphere of water. Chunks of roads, buildings, and statues were ripped out of the ground and pulled into Sin.

))((

Auron looked over his shoulder. "You are sure?"

No longer able to break away from confinement, Jecht stood a few feet away amid the chaos swirling inside of Sin. Stray chunks of the dream that had been sucked inside the magical armor became solid, forming a surreal, damaged version of Zanarkand behind him. He folded his arms across his chest and looked as if he wanted to protest, but he made himself nod in confirmation of their plan to hijack his kid out of Yevon's dreamworld.

Auron looked back down at Tidus. "This is it." He snatched the collar of the vest. "This is your story. It all begins here." Auron jerked the young man up with one incredibly strong tug, and Sin's toxin did the rest, bending and twisting the weave of magic, making every inch of Tidus's body even more solid than it already was.

Tidus cried out as the magic that made up his body was forced into reality. Inside Sin, he had just enough time to look around, confused, before he lost consciousness.

Auron knelt over his charge's form and looked back to Jecht. "Sleep spell?"

Jecht drew near and knelt beside Auron. Hesitantly, he placed a hand on Tidus's golden-blond head. "We've got to get him out of here before ..." With a grimace, he suddenly withdrew and stepped back.

"We're at Bikanel, right? How long will it take you to swim to Besaid from here?"

Jecht shook his head, and his crimson eyes began to darken. "No time!" he warned in an unnaturally gruff voice.

"Jecht!" Auron rose and grabbed his shoulders. "Shake it off! We've got to get to Besaid!"

"I can't!" He was trying but failing to resist transformation. Yevon was aware of their presence and summoning Braska's Final Aeon to fight. "Get him out of here! Get him away from me! He's not ready to face us yet!"

Knowing it was too late for the father, Auron grabbed the son and heaved him over his shoulder before making a hasty retreat toward Sin's mouth. Jecht's aeon roared at them and drew his flaming sword from within his chest, but he resisted Yevon's command to strike long enough to let them escape.

In reality, Sin had never left the ocean to fly above the dream. So, as Sin opened its mouth, Auron ran into the oncoming water and fought to hang onto Tidus as the waves cast them about. Sin's thrashing threatened to push them under. When the warrior monk surfaced, he pushed Tidus up onto a clump of rocks in the middle of some washed-out ruins. "Baaj? Damn it, Jecht! You've stranded us in the middle of nowhere!" he shouted back toward the monster. The warrior monk knew it couldn't be helped, but it frustrated him all the same.

Ducking back under the water, Auron drew his sword and slashed as hard as he could across Sin's shell. With Yevon in control now, Auron couldn't hesitate to defend himself and his charge.

Sin took the bait and turned on the warrior monk.

With Sin bearing down on him, Auron swam toward the tiny string of islands west of the sunken ruins. He would try to find refuge there. The unsent guardian felt no cold, no fatigue, and no fear. So he would do whatever it took to keep Yevon away from Tidus until the boy was able and ready to fight back.

))((

Back in the dream, everything had returned to normal. The buildings stood tall, the stars shone brightly, and the waves were peaceful once more. It was pleasant. But Dream Zanarkand felt empty now. On the verge of tears, Kaila sat on the deck of the houseboat and stared at the seemingly endless sky beyond the calm horizon. Beside her, Bahamut shared her melancholy. "We can't do anything more. It's up to them now."

))((

When Tidus woke, he found himself on some rocks, surrounded by water. It was cold and stormy, and a colorful bird was the only living thing in sight. "Anybody there? Auron?" He was alone, frightened, and had no idea how he came to be here. "Heeeeeeey!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice only echoed off of the dark, foreboding tower in the distance ahead. There was nowhere else to go, so he left the safety of the rocks and swam toward it.

He was nearly eaten by a giant water fiend along the way, but when Tidus made it inside the tower ruins, the first thing he did was search for items to build a fire. Cold, wet, and hungry, he flopped on the floor with exhaustion, but then sat up and drew his knees to himself, trying to keep warm. He heard every unidentifiable noise the creepy place had to offer until he started nodding off.

When his fire began to die out, he looked about for fresh kindling but found himself facing yet another fiend. The lizard-like thing raced with incredible speed along the wall around him, then dropped to the floor to challenge him. This strange place had entirely too many monsters!

Drawing his father's sword, he tried to rid himself of the threat but was surprised when some strangers came to his aid. He couldn't understand a word they said, but he thought he had been rescued … until the girl leading the group punched him in the stomach, and her male cohorts dragged him away.

))((

That evening, as Jecht slowly regained control of his own mind, he gave up trying to find Auron and went back for Tidus. He returned to Baaj just in time to see him being taken onto the Al Bhed ship. Following them south a short distance, he lurked under the waters, watching them attempt to retrieve a sunken airship. As much as he hated to do it, he attacked the ship to get his son back. Washing Tidus overboard and swallowing him as he had before, Jecht cast more sleep magic on him and finished carrying him all the way to the coast of Besaid. By daybreak, Jecht carefully pushed Tidus back into the water, trusting the kid's blitzball skills to help him swim ashore. Then, he turned away and left before he was tempted to attack once more.

))((

The cold, clear water of Besaid's beach soon awakened Tidus, but when he surfaced, he had no idea where he was. He had learned from Rikku, the girl on the Al Bhed ship, that Zanarkand had been destroyed a thousand years ago. That couldn't be right. If that was true, how was he still alive? And how could he ever go home? This beach didn't look anything like Zanarkand.

A blitzball thumping the back of his head snapped his attention to some people on the shore. Civilization at last! "Hey!" He waved to get their attention. Was he ever glad to see them! Ducking under the water, he head-butted the ball high into the air, then flipped into a sphere shot to send the ball back to them.

A big man with carrot-colored hair started to catch the ball but then side-stepped the incredibly wild shot that went way over their heads. "Woah-ho-ho!"

Clearly, someone was a blitzball fan.

))((

A grown man now, Wakka made no connection between the stranger in the water and the stranger that stunned him with a similar shot when he was a kid. But he knew a good draft pick when he saw one. Wakka introduced himself and strategically offered to get Tidus some food before recruiting him for his team's upcoming tournament. Since he thought Sin's toxin was responsible for making Tidus forget even the simple things about where and how they lived, Wakka patiently answered any questions his new friend had. He promised that if they took Tidus to Luca for the tournament, someone was bound to know him there and be able to help him find his way home.

Grateful to simply be among friendly people in this savage new world, Tidus accepted both of Wakka's invitations and followed him back to his village.

Behind them on the beach, Valefor folded her hands behind her back and smiled. Now came the tricky part: getting Tidus and Yuna together.


	36. Chapter 36: The Summoner's Guardians

Chapter 36: The Summoner's Guardians

When Tidus woke from his nap, he found himself alone once more. Besaid was a small village, so Wakka couldn't have gone far. Following a hunch based on a conversation overheard before his nap, Tidus went to look for him in the temple.

There, he found the red-headed blitzball player speaking to a priest that had visited earlier, but they seemed to be worried. Wakka explained that a summoner had disappeared into a room of forbidden access. Tidus didn't understand anything about the traditions here. And any religion that claimed Zanarkand was a holy place and used a blitzball cheer as their prayer was just plain strange. But when Wakka admitted that the room could be dangerous, the fact that the Church of Yevon knowingly condoned such harm didn't sit well with Tidus. Concerned for this summoner, which no one seemed to be willing to help, and despite the warnings from both Wakka and the priest, Tidus ran up the stairs and pushed his way into the forbidden chamber.

Inside, he faced an empty corridor with glowing spheres and glyphs. After walking the length of the place from beginning to end, he realized it was a puzzle. Fascinated by the unusual challenge, he set about trying to solve it and unlocked and opened the next passage. When Wakka caught up to him, he reluctantly agreed to take Tidus with him down into the Cloister of Trials and explained more about summoners and their guardians as they went.

In one of the interior chambers, Wakka and Tidus met a woman with long, black braids. She wore a long, black-leather dress and spoke with a soft but sharp tone. Insulted and angry at Tidus's presence, Lulu's crimson eyes seemed to cut right through him as she fussed at Wakka for bringing the stranger into the forbidden chamber.

"Is the summoner all right?" Tidus asked. He looked to the only other person in the room - a large, blue, bi-pedal lion with a broken unicorn-like horn. This humanoid creature was twice the size of anyone else in the room and had a menacing look in his yellow eyes.

Lulu faced Tidus with ice-cold suspicion. "Who are you?"

The door suddenly opened, and a young woman dressed in a lightweight, shoulder-less furisode entered the room at the top of the stairs. She paused for a moment, dizzy, then started to fall. Like everyone else in the room, Tidus reflexively gasped and reacted to catch her, but the lion-man reached her first. Cradling her gently in his massive arms, he growled, warning Tidus to stay back.

The young woman regained enough strength to fix her hair and stand. "I've done it. I have become a summoner." Her face was beaded with sweat from whatever she had endured in the chamber of the Fayth, but she was happy.

Tidus didn't realize his mouth was hanging open in surprise. For some reason, he thought the summoner they talked about was an old man. This girl looked about his age and was actually rather pretty. The lion-man was still glaring at him, though, so Tidus shut his mouth and kept his distance.

When the new summoner and her guardians left the chamber, Tidus followed and watched as everyone inside the temple congratulated her. He guessed being a summoner was pretty important. But even with Wakka's explanations, he still didn't understand much about it.

As the crowd surrounding the summoner and her guardians moved outside the temple, Tidus got separated from Wakka.

"Hey! Over here!"

In the courtyard, Tidus looked in the wrong direction until he was grabbed in a headlock by the other blitzball player and dragged toward a large circle in the center of the village's only road. "What? Ah-ah-ow!" He stumbled after him and tried to pull free.

Wakka pushed people out of the way, receiving a few dirty looks for his brash behavior, but he made room for his new friend. "Wait till you see this!"

"I can't see anything!" Tidus complained since he was being held facing the opposite direction. Pushing Wakka away, he readied himself for another abrupt tackle, when he realized something was happening within the circle where the summoner stood.

"Ready!" Wakka cued the new summoner.

"Okay," she answered with a small, shy smile. Then, the young woman lifted her staff and wove a spell that drew colorful glyphs of magic on the ground and in the air.

A large bird-like creature burst from the clouds and came down to her.

Tidus's first thought was that it was another fiend, and his hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword. But no one ran, and the monstrous bird did not attack. When the young woman who had summoned it stepped forward to stroke the brilliant red feathers beneath its sharp beak, the creature purred. Everyone offered more congratulations. So, this was what a summoner could do? He was impressed.

))((

That night, Valefor left her tomb within the temple and walked among the people gathered around a celebratory bonfire in the middle of the village. Yuna was chatting with some of the other villagers, so Valefor sat with her new summoner and looked for Tidus. The memory of her first meeting with Shuyin made her smile. It was good to have him "back," even if she missed Lenne.

Valefor giggled at how Wakka talked Tidus into joining the Besaid Aurochs. The Fayth's illusion had been eagerly accepted by one person, at least. But Tidus needed Yuna's attention if this was going to work. For a moment, Valefor worried her summoner would be too shy to approach their illusion, but her worries were put to rest when Yuna smiled at Tidus, and _he_ decided that was enough of an excuse to introduce himself.

The villagers in the circle didn't want him near. They had witnessed his heretical disregard for the Cloister of Trials, and they weren't likely to forget it any time soon. Unfriendly remarks were made to keep him away. And Valefor could tell Tidus was about to say something he probably shouldn't when Yuna surprised everyone by leaving the bonfire circle to speak with him directly.

Her soft brown hair curled gently beneath her chin as she smiled and introduced herself. "Thank you so much for your help earlier."

"I'm sorry about that. Wasn't that ... Wasn't I not supposed to ... Guess I kind of overreacted."

"Oh, no. I was ... overconfident."

He could easily relate to that. Amused, he tried to keep the conversation going. "Um, I saw that aeon thing. That's amazing!"

"Really?" She leaned forward slightly to hold his attention for a moment, as if completely unaware that she already had full command of it. "Do you think I can become high summoner?"

Valefor giggled again as Tidus lost himself in Yuna's unusual eyes, but he managed to nod in response.

"Lady Yuna," a child interrupted them. "Come play with me some more."

Yuna smiled at the child but turned back to face Tidus. "So, tomorrow, then."

He was disappointed the child had interrupted but refrained from showing it. "Tomorrow?"

"We're going on the same boat, aren't we?"

"Oh, really?" He guessed she meant the boat to Luca.

"We can talk more. You can tell me all about Zanarkand."

Valefor was as pleasantly surprised as Tidus was. Everyone else had laughed when he told them where he was from, but Yuna wanted to know more.

As the summoner returned to the circle where she was seated before, Wakka joined Tidus. "She's cute, ya?" He nudged an elbow against Tidus's arm in a mildly teasing manner.

"Yeah."

"Don't get no ideas," Wakka then promptly scolded.

Tidus smirked. "No promises there, big guy." He flashed Wakka a mischievous glance, but his gaze drifted back to Yuna as she talked to the other villagers. "Hey, but what if _she_, like, comes on to me?"

"That's not going to happen," Wakka warned. "If you get tired, let me know. I had a bed made for you."

"Thanks." Tidus walked to the fire to warm himself, but his gaze, again, turned toward Yuna.

Valefor noted the way Yuna's eyes occasionally lifted in Tidus's direction, too. Then, with a grin of satisfaction, the Fayth closed her eyes and entered the dream.

))((

"Well?" Bahamut asked as soon as Valefor appeared on the houseboat.

"Yuna has successfully summoned my aeon. And she's taking a ship to Kilika tomorrow morning to seek out Ifrit."

Kaila stopped chewing her bottom lip. "And Tidus?"

"He's … confused. And he almost got in trouble at the temple by entering the Cloister of Trials without permission."

Bahamut groaned and shook his head at the typical Shuyin-like tendency for trouble. "But he's still Tidus, right? I mean, he hasn't started acting strange or violent after his encounter with Sin or Jecht, has he?"

"Not at all. In fact, he's already made friends with one of Yuna's three guardians," Valefor informed them, much to their relief. "Wakka convinced Tidus to join his blitzball team, so they'll be on the same ship to Luca tomorrow with Yuna. Oh, and Tidus is very interested in her." Valefor giggled into her hand.

The corner of Kaila's mouth quirked as she rolled her eyes. "Of course, he is. It's Yuna's interest in him that concerns us."

"Well, Yuna is very focused on her pilgrimage right now, and she's not the type to be distracted easily," Valefor admitted. "But she's interested in talking to him about Zanarkand."

"Did Auron tell them their fathers followed the same path together?" Kaila asked.

Valefor shrugged in a puzzled manner. "Auron wasn't with him when he came to Besaid."

Bahamut frowned. "That's strange. Auron said he would stay with him."

"I'll follow them to Kilika and keep you informed," the young girl volunteered. "I just hope Auron's okay."

))((

Auron woke to the sound of engines running in the distance and opened slitted eyes to see that he was still in the tall grass beyond the dunes on the island where he took refuge from Sin. Sighing, he stood and grabbed his coat and sword. Hefting his sword onto his shoulder, he edged toward the dunes, seeking the source of the sound. Al Bhed ... Luck might be with him today. Where Al Bhed were digging up ancient machina, there would be a salvage ship. The warrior monk decided to take a chance and introduce himself.

The workers stopped their digging machina and pointed the noisy, rumbling contraptions toward him as soon as they saw him on the dunes.

Auron sheathed his sword in hopes of warding off an attack. "_Rammu! So hysa ec _Auron_. Fuimt dryd creb rybbah du pa kuehk yhofrana hayn _Baaj?"

"Baaj?" They consulted each other for a minute, then one of them called back. "_Fro tu oui haat du ku drana_?"

"_E mucd cusauha drana - dra cuh uv y vneaht uv seha_," he answered when they questioned why he needed a ride there.

One of the Al Bhed, a teen dressed from head to toe in goggles and zippered gear to protect her from the sun and dangerous work, spoke to the others briefly and then jogged forward to meet him. "This friend's son that you lost … Does he happen to have short blond hair and think he's from Zanarkand?"

Auron adjusted his sunglasses. "That would be him."

"We found someone like that at Baaj two days ago, but we were attacked by Sin, and he washed overboard."

Auron's good eye closed with a grimace as he cursed under his breath. Now he had no idea where to find him. Tidus might be dead for all he knew.

"We can take you there anyway if you still want to look for him."

"If it's not too much trouble. _Dryhgc_," he thanked her.

_ "_Rikku_! Rinno ib!"_ A worker with a tattooed chest and blond mohawk called.

"Just a minute," she spoke politely to Auron, then faced the other Al Bhed. "Keep your pants on! _Fa'na dygehk res pylg du_ Baaj!"

Auron pushed his sunglasses back up on his nose and smirked at the petite girl's commanding shout. Following her back to their ship, he waited by the sidelines while they finished the salvage hunt. Then, he boarded the vessel with the Al Bhed to head back to Baaj.

Navigating the water around the ruined tower, Auron scanned all of the rocks and chunks of stone protruding above the surface. But the subject of his search was nowhere to be found. "Tidus!" he bellowed as loudly as he could from the ship. They dare not get too close to the tower, due to submerged hazards on the ship's radar. "Tidus!" Only his own voice echoed back to him. "Can you spare a few minutes to let me search inside?" he finally asked of the girl named Rikku.

"Sure! We'll even help, so it doesn't take as long." Rikku gestured for the rest of the Al Bhed crew to follow Auron off of the ship into the ruins once more.

After a failed search of the tower, Auron tried to think of where else Tidus might be, supposing he had survived. The girl had said they were attacked by Sin after taking him on board. Jecht might have come back for him, but whether that was good or bad, he couldn't say. "Could you take me to Besaid?"

Rikku winced beneath her goggles and headgear. "_Cunno_. Besaid's a little out of the way for Bikanel. And no one could swim that far from here … unless he's a blitzball player. Oh, wait! He was a blitzball player, wasn't he? That's why I offered to take him to Luca before he washed away from us."

"If he finds out about Luca's blitzball stadium, he's bound to show up there eventually," Auron agreed. "Luca's probably out of your way, too, but if you can get me to the islands east of here, I can manage the rest of the distance on my own."

"You got it!" The girl gave him a friendly smile and headed back to her crew to discuss his request before heading home.

Auron turned his attention to the dolphins following the ship beneath the waves. He hoped Tidus was in Luca, for everyone's sake.

))((

Voices ...

In the depths of the canyon off of Mushroom Rock Road, after going through unknown years of isolation, Shuyin had learned to shroud himself in a deep sleep as much as possible to escape his memories. Now, his awareness slowly awakened to the sound of voices.

Voices outside the cavern were nothing new. Over the years, many people had come and gone, unable to open the impossible lock. They wondered what glorious treasure lay beyond such an ornate door, or they were curious about rumors that an evil spirit was buried there. It came to be known as the Den of Woe, and none dared disturb it. But this time, the voices were followed by a grinding sound, the door's movement, and a crack of light. Like a vampire avoiding the sun, Shuyin's spirit withdrew to a remote corner and blinked back imagined pain at the brightness piercing his dark tomb.

A small group of Crusaders entered with torches, guns, and a high dose of caution. "Looks okay to me," one of them stated.

"Uh, what about that?" Another Crusader pointed to the skeletons that littered the floor. "That doesn't look okay."

"Vikut, they said this was supposed to be an old tomb. What'd ya expect to find in here, a carnival? Stop being such a wuss. All we have to do is clean this up and bury the bones somewhere else. It's the perfect place to store the captured fiends for Operation Mi'ihen." A third member of the Crusaders moved forward to inspect the scattered bone fragments.

The Crusader named Vikut still didn't seem convinced the place was safe. His gaze shifted to the pyreflies that filled the area with a spectral glow. "Well, at least we'll be putting fiends in here rather than people or supplies, right? They'll feel right at home in this creepy place. What if they absorb more pyreflies and get stronger, though? Do you think this is a good idea?"

Shuyin wasn't interested in them and their operation. Only one thing interested him. Rising from the darkness, his spirit shot through the Crusaders toward the door. But opening the door did not remove the magical wards that sealed the cavern spirit within. Shuyin still could not pass between the glyphs on the walls. After all this time, the door finally opened, yet he remained trapped. _No!_ _There's got to be a way out!_

"Hey! Look!" Vikut pointed at the small cluster of pyreflies hovering near the door. "It's a fiend! I knew we never should have come in here! The dead deserve to rest! We need to get out of here and lock the door again!"

The swarm of pyreflies suddenly came straight for Vikut. He cried out and turned to run, but there was no escape from Shuyin's spirit.

_ "You want to lock me back in? Then how about we trade places, and you can stay trapped in this darkness for all eternity!"_ The failed guardian unleashed his memories of losing his summoner, facing a monstrous machina, and being shot by a relentless firing squad. _"I should make you relive this moment, again and again, every day, as I have! But today's your lucky day. You're going to get me out of here."_

"No! Please! Don't kill me!" Vikut became uncontrollably frightened, but he couldn't tell if it was because he was afraid of what he was seeing, or because of the voice in his head. Either way, he raised his gun in defense against what he thought he saw.

"Vikut! What's wrong with you, man?" The other Crusaders weren't sure whether to draw their weapons or back away. Vikut certainly wasn't acting normal.

Then, Vikut fired multiple times into his stunned companions.

Outside of the cave, another group of Crusaders idly waiting for the return of the first group heard the shots. "What the ..." One of them ran into the cavern to see what happened. "Vikut? What the hell are you doing?"

No longer in control of himself, Vikut aimed the gun without hesitation and fired again. A second Crusader came in behind the first. He shot him, as well. Then, Vikut made a break for the door. Before he could reach it, a third Crusader stepped into the light of the opening and sent a bullet dead-center through Vikut's chest to stop his killing spree. Shuyin's victim barely had time to recognize he was dying between the time the invading spirit left his body and the time he fell to the floor.

"What's going on in there?" The leader of the small unit assigned to open the tomb came to the entrance and readied his flame gun with caution.

Enraged, Shuyin's spirit flew toward the marksman that killed his host.

The marksman turned to run.

"Retreat! Close the door again! Seal it and guard it!" The leader grabbed his fleeing warrior to jerk him clear as they slammed the door shut and quickly relocked it with an intricate key that not only rolled machina tumblers but infused an outer ward against magic over the device.

"No!" Shuyin cried out and rushed toward the door again, gathering pyreflies to materialize in his own form. "Let me out! Damn it! Let me out of here!" He slammed his fists against the painful wards. "You can't leave me here again! It's been so long! Please, let me out!" Dropping to his knees, he dug his fingers into the crack at the door's edge. "No ... This can't be happening!" he whispered in a panic, then banged his forehead against the barricade. "Next time, I swear I will get out of here no matter what it takes!" Again, he slammed a fist into the rock wall and closed his eyes to burning tears of despair. "I will get out of here," he made himself a soft, sinister promise. "I will escape. They will open it again because they found the key. And I will be ready next time. I will get out of here, Lenne. Just you wait and see!"

))((

The Crusaders on the other side heard his shouts and pleas but stood by in confusion.

"Someone's in there."

"No one was in there. It's empty."

"You didn't hear that?"

"No one was in there, I'm telling ya! That wasn't a real person! It's haunted!"

"That's just a rumor."

"Well, something's not right in there, or five of my men wouldn't be dead!" The team leader snapped. "Whatever's in there _stays_ in there until we can figure out what the hell's going on. Stand guard," he ordered. Then, taking one last look at the door, he took the lift up to the precipice overlooking the sea. There, he entered their commander's tent. There, the maester of the D'jose temple sat behind a makeshift table, consulting with other church officials. "Maester Kinoc, sir! There's been an incident at the cavern where we meant to keep the Sin spawn. There's something terrible inside. It's making them kill each other!"

Kinoc looked up, annoyed at the interruption. "Who's killing each other, Qwenten?"

The unit leader drew a breath in an attempt to calm himself. "We used the temple's key to unlock the door, like you said. The place looked empty, but when my men entered, they started behaving irrationally. They started shooting each other. I lost five of them in a matter of minutes."

The maester seemed genuinely surprised. "The temple of Djose designed that lock and key ages ago when one of our summoners was called to dispose of an unsent spirit on a killing spree. The summoner never returned, but an urgent message requested a warded lock be placed on the tomb to keep anyone from entering. Protecting the key became the duty of the Djose maesters. But no one has had any reason to disturb the tomb since. You're telling me that spirit is _still_ there? After all this time?"

"Apparently so. It sounded like someone begging to be released." Qwenten offered to return the key.

The maester shrugged. "Then kill it."

"We can't kill what we can't see. And that is no ordinary fiend. It possesses people!"

Kinoc sighed as if this was one more problem he didn't need. Then, after a thoughtful moment, he looked to two of his temple guards standing inside the open door-flaps of his tent. "Has the Crimson Squad arrived yet?"

"Not yet, Boss! Er, ah ... Maester Lord," the short turtle-like one of the pair answered.

"Check our supplies and make sure we have enough firepower so that they're well equipped when they arrive," Kinoc told them.

"Right away, sir," the tall, thin one agreed and then led the way out of the tent with the other.

Kinoc looked back to Qwenten. "Take no further action with the tomb just yet. Tell no one what you've discovered. Let me know when the Crimson Squad recruits arrive."

"Yes, sir. But … what about the caged fiends? If we can't put them in the cavern, where else can we keep them?"

"Seal off Mushroom Rock Road and have the Chocobo knights stand watch. You'll have to keep the cages along the road for now. Just make sure travelers are not allowed through. It's for their own safety."

"Yes, sir." Qwenten bowed and left the tent.

))((

Kinoc looked to his advisers that remained. "The Crimson Squad are mostly Al Bhed youngsters wanting to join the Crusaders. I was going to use them as a cautionary underpinning—a little something in case Seymour decided to grab too much power too quickly, now that he holds his father's position. But whether they meet their ends keeping him in check, trying to defeat Sin, or investigating a fiend-infested cavern, it's still a few less Al Bhed heretics when this joint operation fails." The maester chuckled with the approval of his advisors.

))((

Auron reunited with Tidus in Luca after fiends attacked the blitzball stadium following the tournament. Tidus and Yuna had already pieced together the clues about their fathers knowing the same warrior monk. So, after listening to Tidus's short tantrum about him being the reason everything went wrong, Auron pulled Tidus aside for a private conversation on the docks and told him the truth about his father.

"It can't be," Tidus responded with mild disbelief.

"It is. Sin is Jecht."

"No! That's ridiculous! No way! I don't believe you!" Tidus turned away, refusing to accept the distressing news.

"But it is the truth. You'll see for yourself. Come with me."

Tidus paced, still just as angry. "If I say no?"

"Every story must have an ending."

"I don't care about your stories!"

"I see. Sorry you feel that way," Auron frowned. "Fine, then. Come or don't come. It's your decision."

Tidus growled in frustration and turned back around to face him. "What am I supposed to say? You tell me it's my decision, but I don't have a choice, do I? I have to go with you! I have to! You're the only one who can tell me what's going on anyway!" Tidus turned his back to him and bent his hands to his knees to steam quietly for a moment.

Auron sympathized and wondered if the Fayth were watching now that their illusion stood on the threshold of discovering his own truth. "Irritating, I know. Or are you afraid?" He could tell the boy was afraid, though he would never admit it. The warrior monk approached Tidus from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder, supportive but firm to let him knew he understood. "It's all right."

"Auron? Will I ever go home? Back to Zanarkand?"

"That's up to Jecht." Auron turned to leave, but then stopped and looked over his shoulder. "I'm going to offer my services to Yuna. Come."

Tidus asked a few more questions about his dad, but he didn't get many answers. Finally, he sighed in resignation and reluctantly followed his former guardian.

"Woah," Wakka commented when he saw Auron approaching.

"Sir Auron!" Yuna grinned, happy to see him again.

"Yuna," he greeted her with a nod and a smile.

"Sir?"

"I wish to become your guardian. Do you accept?"

"You're serious?" Lulu asked.

"You refuse?"

"No, no! We accept! Right, everyone?" Yuna looked at her growing number of companions.

"O-of course! No problem at all!" Wakka heartily agreed.

"But ... why?" Lulu asked, suspiciously.

"I promised Braska."

"You promised my father?" Yuna seemed touched. "Thank you, Sir Auron. You're welcome to join us!"

"And ..." He grabbed Tidus, who had been sullenly kicking a pebble on the pavement, and jerked him around in front of him. "He comes, too."

Tidus regained his balance and tried to regain his composure. He was still angry at Auron's little information bomb concerning his dad's disappearance, but at least now he understood why he never wanted to talk about him before. "Hi ... guys. Eh ... howdy."

"This one I promised Jecht."

"Is Sir Jecht alive?" Yuna was hopeful.

Auron could hardly call those brief phantom projections "alive." He could communicate with his friend, but it wasn't the same. Tidus knew the truth now, but no one else needed to just yet. "Can't say. Haven't seen him in ten years."

Yuna was disappointed. "I ... see."

"You'll meet eventually."

"Yes! I'm looking forward to it."

With an apologetic expression, Tidus averted his gaze.

Auron stepped forward to Lulu. "What's our itinerary? Where are we headed?"

"We cross the highroad and Mushroom Rock Road toward Djose so that Yuna can pray to the Fayth and receive its aeon," she answered.

As the group headed up the steps out of the city of Luca toward the Mi'ihen Highroad, Auron watched Tidus reluctantly linger. His first test would challenge his will to continue this journey now that he knew their target's true identity.

))((

Yuna had noticed something was bothering Tidus and returned to talk. Unseen to any of them, Ifrit had followed and leaned against the wall to watch the pair with thoughtful concern. Then, the Fayth closed his eyes and entered the dream.

This time, Bahamut and Kaila sat on the water arch overlooking the city.

"Auron has reunited with Tidus and told him the truth about Jecht's identity," Ifrit reported. "He hasn't explained more than that because hearing that Jecht is Sin was upsetting. But … Tidus is also upset that he has no choice but to be involved."

"But he does have a choice, " Bahamut stated. "Auron can't make him fight."

"Uh, actually Auron insisted he come along as one of Yuna's guardians. So it's official now. But Yuna wanted him to join, too. They get along pretty well." Ifrit paused and smirked. "_Really_ well," he repeated with a slight wink.

Kaila's expression flattened. "He's showing off to impress her, isn't he?"

Ifrit chuckled. "Just a little."

"That idiot," Bahamut frowned. "He's supposed to be protecting her, not flirting with her."

"Well, nothing's come of it yet," Ifrit countered. "He just doesn't realize she's not going to be around for very long. And neither will he. So …"

Kaila saddened, then lifted her chin with a bittersweet smile. "If anything happens between them, let it happen."

"But … he's not real."

"His feelings are. And so are hers. Let them have their time together. If they find comfort and strength in each other, it will give both of them something worth living for—something they will need to see this difficult task through to the end."


	37. Chapter 37: Crossroads and Crossed Roads

Chapter 37: Crossroads and Crossed Roads

"So, uh ... how do you ride these things?" Tidus squinted at one of three large, yellow birds that the group had been offered. After killing a chocobo eater outside of Rin's Travel Agency that morning, chocobo rentals were temporarily free of charge.

"Don't be chicken, ya?" Wakka chuckled at his own joke, grabbed the bird's reins closest to him, and easily mounted the creature's back. "You just pull in the direction you want them to go and pull straight back to stop."

"Don't they fly?" Tidus tilted his head to look under one of the wings.

"No, but they run really, really fast. So make sure you hold on tight."

Tidus eagerly prepared to take one of the free chocobos but was brusquely pushed aside by Kimahri. "Wha—hey! What's the big idea? Stop pushing me like that," he complained as the lion-faced man mounted the last chocobo.

"We should pair up by weight to avoid tiring them too soon," Auron suggested as he also mounted one of the large, yellow birds. "Our heavy riders need first dibs. Then we can evenly distribute the lighter weights. Kimahri is our heaviest rider, so you can't ride with him."

"Well, who said I wanted to ride with him anyway?" Tidus folded his arms.

"You're a lightweight, but heavier than Yuna and Lulu so—"

"Excuse me?" Tidus became indignant. "I'm medium weight. And I don't want to be stuck in the back. Can't we each get our own?"

"Not unless you want to stop whining like a little girl and go rent your own," Wakka told him. Chuckling, he reached a hand down to Lulu, but all he got in return was an unhappy frown. Wakka scratched the back of his head. "Uh ... I mean ..."

"Forget it. I wouldn't want you to have to listen to any whining." Lulu walked to Auron and lifted her hand, requesting to share his chocobo, instead. The warrior monk helped her climb onto the back of the bird behind him, and the mage gracefully settled into a side-saddle position, smoothing her long, black dress.

Tidus laughed at the snub, then walked back to the chocobo rental to ask for another.

Behind him, the big blitzball player held out a hand to the summoner. "Yuna?"

"Ah ... I …"

"What? Are you mad at me too?" Wakka withdrew. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just poking fun at him, ya?"

"I know. It's just … when I was little, I dropped a ball near a chocobo once. But when I tried to get it back, I got kicked and hit with a fire spell. I'm sorry, but I really don't like them."

"They only cast fire magic when they're scared."

"But they get scared a lot. And they run too fast."

"Maybe just close your eyes when they run," Wakka advised. "That way, you don't see nothing."

Having paid a rental fee, Tidus picked a chocobo for himself and led it back to the group. Stopping to study the saddle for a moment, he lifted himself onto it. "Well, that was easy." He grinned. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Yuna's afraid to ride," Wakka restated. "Maybe we should walk," he suggested to the other guardians.

"It will take longer and be more dangerous," Lulu countered. "Yuna, you should ride with Kimahri. You know _he_ won't let anything happen to you." She cut a side-glare toward Wakka.

"What? Whaaaat?" he protested. "What's that supposed to mean? I won't let nothing happen to her. But if she doesn't want to ride, we should walk."

Yuna looked aside, ashamed at being the cause of the delay.

Tidus tested his chocobo-riding skills by moving it toward her, but the closer the bird got to her, the more she backed away. "Hey, Yuna? You weren't afraid of that big aeon bird you summoned, were you?" He turned the chocobo sideways, facing away from her.

"No, but ... Valefor does what I ask her to do. And I know she won't step on me."

"Yeah, but you've stood up to some really big fiends so far, and this is just a chocobo. Besides, you shouldn't miss out on something fun just because of one bad experience." He leaned low and held out his hand.

"Don't do it, Yuna," Auron advised. "Ride with Kimahri or Wakka."

Tidus straightened and frowned at him. "Just because I'm new at this doesn't mean I can't handle it."

"Your idea of 'fun' sometimes defies logic."

"Well, it's not like I'm going to race or anything … unless you're challenging me." Tidus leaned forward in his saddle. "Is that a challenge, old man?"

Auron's brows sharply drew together at that mischievous bait. "I rest my case."

Yuna took a brave step toward the chocobo. "Tidus?"

He turned away from Auron.

The summoner checked her fear with determination. "I don't want everyone to walk because of me. I want my journey to be fun. May I … please ride with you?"

Tidus flashed Auron a triumphant told-ya-so expression and a confident, "Hmpf." As Auron shook his head at Yuna's folly, Tidus helped her onto the chocobo behind him. "I'll try not to go too fast, okay? But if I do, just let me know, and I'll slow down."

Yuna's arms encircled his waist. "Okay," she agreed with a nervous nod, but then buried her face in his shirt's hood.

Amused, Tidus looked over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Closing my eyes, so I don't see anything."

"But ... that's not any fun."

"I'm fine with it," she assured him with a muffled voice, keeping her face buried.

Auron shook his head once more and started down the highroad. Wakka tried not to laugh as he followed. And Kimahri gave Tidus a growl of warning, choosing to stay directly behind them.

The blitzball player gave the ronso a flat expression for being overprotective, but started forward, keeping the chocobo's walk at a leisurely pace. When Tidus looked over his shoulder again, Yuna's face was still buried in his hood. This would never do. Stopping the chocobo, he loosened her arms about his waist and dismounted.

"Oh, no! What are you doing?" Yuna reached for him.

"Just trading places," he assured her.

"But I can't …" Yuna dug her fingers into the thick yellow plumes of the bird's neck and shoulders and squeezed her knees against the bird's shoulders. But no matter how she sat on the bird, she didn't _feel_ assured. "There's nothing to hold onto!"

Tidus got back on the chocobo behind her. "Then hold onto me." Reaching under her arms, he grabbed the reins.

Yuna released the fistful of feathers to grasp his forearms.

After adjusting his position, he gently tapped his heels against the bird's ribs. The chocobo folded its wings against their legs as if helping to hold its riders in place before moving forward again. Having fallen behind the others, it was tempting to jolt forward and catch up to them, but Tidus continued to walk the bird at a slow, steady pace under Kimahri's watchful eyes. After a few minutes, he leaned next to Yuna's cheek. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," she answered with a nervous smile.

Tidus took that as a positive sign and tapped his heels into the bird's ribcage again, increasing their pace to a trot. After a few more minutes, he leaned forward to check her expression. She still seemed nervous, so he decided to distract her with conversation. "Why do they call it Mushroom Rock Road?"

"The rocks have round tops that make them look like mushrooms. On maps, they're drawn like clusters of mushrooms, sometimes." She turned her chin to try to see his face though he was already near. "I thought you didn't want to sit in the back."

"It's okay." He shrugged. "I'll switch places with you again on the way back. Having fun yet?"

The summoner blinked at him with astonishment. "Yes!" Then, with a sad realization, she smiled. "Yes, I am."

"Good! Then we can catch up now." Folding one arm across her waist to be sure she didn't fall, he heeled the chocobo's ribs again.

As the chocobo broke into a run, Yuna cried out, grabbed the bird's feathers again, and shut her eyes tight. But after the initial burst of unexpected speed, she opened them and laughed at the bumpy, jostling ride.

Tidus grinned. A genuine laugh—that was what he wanted to see—not that polite smile she wore to cover her true feelings. Kimahri growled and stayed on their chocobo's hindquarters. As Tidus passed Wakka and Auron's trotting fowls, he stuck his tongue out at them in short, comic fashion. "Woohoo! See ya!" he challenged before racing ahead.

"Ah ... Ah!" Wakka was nearly rendered speechless. Kicking his chocobo into high gear, he chased after Tidus and Kimahri, shaking his fist at them. "What are you doing running with Yuna like that, you bonehead!"

Auron brought his chocobo to a halt and sighed. Then, he glanced over his shoulder to the mage gracefully seated behind him, and his brows rose inquiringly above his sunglasses.

Lulu frowned. "Don't even think about it."

))((

The next time Shuyin heard voices, and the door into his dark domain opened, he was surprised to see several more people enter. Armed and cautious, they appeared to be hunting something. They were hunting _him_. And with that realization, as they continued to come further inside the cavern, he held still, remained silent, observed their movements, and listened to their conversations. Shuyin had finally learned the value of patience.

Instead of rushing to the door, he studied his prey to determine which would make a suitable host. He needed someone that would be difficult to physically subdue, and the last man to enter had a body that was half-machina. Shuyin recalled the machina soldiers he had to fight in the war—their tireless, impenetrable, sometimes magic-resistant bodies.

Some of his other memories had become so constant, so thick, that the cavern's pyreflies had absorbed them. And as the tomb raiders spread out to search the deeper recesses of the den, the ethereal, glowing mist began to reveal Vegnagun and the scattered events that led to Shuyin's death. All of them felt his despair. Within a matter of minutes, they were turning their weapons on each other. The trio of young men at the back, including the machina-man, was horrified to witness the massacre. They wanted no part in a squad that killed its own members, so they tried to escape. Shuyin wasn't going to let that happen—not without him.

His spirit flew into the half-machina man, but this time he didn't attempt a violent takeover. He searched for information, instead. His new host was a young man named Nooj—a recruit for a new elite fighting force, the Crimson Squad. They'd been told this was part of a training exercise, but this cavern had never been used for training exercises before. These people had most likely been sent down here to die. But why? Shuyin was intrigued.

As the pyrefly memories infected his mind, Nooj pointed his gun at his friend and cried out in anguish. They all did. Standing in a triangle of death, each was ready to snuff the life of another.

Shuyin couldn't let it go that far. He needed this body alive. _"Put the gun down, Nooj,"_ he calmly advised.

A female recorder circled them, wondering what to do. She yelled at them to stop.

_"Listen to her, Nooj. Put the gun down, so we can walk out of here nice and calm."_

The young woman's voice broke through the illusion Nooj was seeing. Then, he and his friends snapped out of their trances and ran out of the cavern, passing through the spirit wards.

Shuyin held his breath until Nooj was outside of the den. Finally! After endless ages, he was on the other side! If he was alone, he would have kissed the ground outside of that cursed door, but under the circumstances, he chose to remain quiet and hidden, letting Nooj speak and act for himself.

While the trio reported the massacre and the massive, growling machina they had seen, Shuyin looked at the world through Nooj's eyes. Its brightness and beauty were almost painful. And the men in charge of this covert operation? Their uniforms were almost too familiar—Bevelle warrior monks and a priest with robes bearing Yevon's signature trademark. Yevon _still_ existed? Or was he merely a legend now? When Bahamut visited, he said it had been almost a thousand years since Shuyin was locked away in that cavern. Shuyin wondered how much time had passed since then.

The priest congratulated them for passing their final test and told them to forget what they saw. Then, he gave them their first assignment—protect the maester. He whispered something to the warrior monks behind him while Nooj and his friends congratulated each other.

Shuyin searched the young man's mind for more information about who this maester was and what was happening for them to be at this remote location.

"Run!" the female recorder suddenly cried. "Run!"

Her shout startled Shuyin, but the shots fired at his host's back startled him even more. Why were warrior monks shooting their own recruits? Shuyin considered jumping from his host and fleeing to safety independently, but his chances of finding another half-machina body like this one were slim. So, he seeped deeper into Nooj's mind while his defenses were down and encouraged his new host to run as fast as he could across the bottom of the canyon.

))((

"Should we go after them, sir?" one of the gunners asked.

"No." Behind the escaping witnesses, the priest in charge of overseeing the Crimson Squad's final training exercise peered into the gloomy cavern full of dead bodies. "It would raise too many questions to be seen hunting down deserters while Operation Mi'ihen is going on. We'll find them later." It wasn't the loss of the entire Crimson Squad that bothered him, though. It was the description of the apparition and giant machina they said they saw within. It made no sense, but he wasn't about to go in there and find out what was going on for himself. "There's enough pyreflies in there now to breed an entire dungeon full of fiends. I need to report to Maester Kinoc. Meanwhile, send someone in to take a body count and see if there are any other survivors," he ordered his warrior monks. The priest scowled at the female recorder that had given the three survivors warning in time for them to escape. Then, he headed back to the command center.

))((

Qwenten was the only one from his own Crusader unit at the cavern this time, and now he had been left alone with the Crimson Squad's recorder, a young woman named Paine.

"Something about this whole thing," she anxiously complained as soon as the priest was gone. "It doesn't seem right. He was going to shoot them in the back!"

It bothered Qwenten, too, but he tried to remain rational. "Because they were shooting each other in there. You saw what happened."

"I saw my friends lose their minds in there, only to come out here and get promoted to an execution! What's in there that they weren't supposed to see?"

"I don't know, okay? I'm just trying to follow orders because we've got more important things to worry about with Sin out there!" Qwenten noticed the recorder's supply bag. "Those training spheres ... They're evidence. The maester's probably going to want to see them."

"Fine." Paine dropped her supply bag at the Crusader's feet but shouldered her recorder's strap across her back. "Take your precious spheres. I'm more concerned about the people in them." Flashing him an angry glare, she ran away to look for her friends.

))((

A few minutes later, the priest returned with Maester Kinoc and was upset to learn that the recorder had run away, too. Kinoc, the head of both the Crusaders and warrior monks branch of the temple, boldly entered the cavern to see the bodies littering the floor beneath the cloud of pyreflies. Two warrior monks who were supposed to be taking a body count were arguing about bodies being missing among the enlistees. "Four still live," Kinoc interrupted. "Fix it!"

The fat one muttered something beneath his breath in response.

"Did you say something?" he challenged.

"No, Sir," the tall thin one replied. "Pay him no mind."

Kinoc left the cavern with the priest and lowered his voice. "Are you sure it sounded like Vegnagun they were describing?"

"Positive. Although how they knew about it is beyond me," the priest answered. "They suggested it was the pyreflies."

Kinoc and the priest stopped in front of Qwenten. "Seal it again," Kinoc ordered. "And this time change the lock. Make it even harder to open than before. Break the key in pieces and cast them to the wind if you have to. I don't care how you do it, just make sure no one ever goes in there again. I will be on the precipice awaiting Maester Seymour's arrival if you have further questions about your orders.

"Yes, sir." Qwenten wasn't sure what to think of Kinoc's attack on the covert operation's only survivors. "Sir, forgive me for questioning, but ... why are they a threat? They passed the trial, and we need all the able-bodies we can get to fight Sin."

"They might be infected with whatever caused that madness in there. We don't want it—or word of it—getting out, do we?" Kinoc curtly answered before heading back to the lift.

The priest who advised the maester concerning the Crimson Squad cut a warning glance toward the Crusaders' unit leader who first discovered the threat, but then he walked away.

Qwenten looked down at the spheres Paine dumped at his feet, and an idea came to him about what kind of new lock the door needed—a lock that would remember this tragedy and warn others so that it would never happen again.

))((

Yuna's party arrived at the gate of the ruins that separated the Mi'ihen Highroad from Mushroom Rock Road, and Tidus reluctantly hopped down from his chocobo. "Now, wasn't that fun?" he asked as he helped her off of the bird.

She laughed and combed her fingers through her windblown hair, hoping it didn't look as stringy as it felt now. "Oh, much more fun than I imagined."

Tidus was glad to hear it. As he left with the other guardians to return their chocobos to the rental attendant, Lulu strolled to Yuna's side. "He was reckless to race with you like that."

"But it was really fun," Yuna happily countered. "I've been avoiding chocobos since I was six, but I guess it is kind of silly to be afraid of something so small, considering I intend to fight Sin."

"If his recklessness had harmed you, where would your pilgrimage be?" Lulu placed one hand on Yuna's shoulder to hold her still while she fixed her hair for her. "None of us want to lose you, but to lose you to something trivial would be especially bad, considering the reason for your journey."

"Being in his arms like that ... It was nice," Yuna confessed with a hint of embarrassment. "And ... he doesn't understand the outcome of the Final Summoning yet. He's planning to share another ride with me on a return trip. It's … refreshing."

Lulu softened her tone. "I'm sure it was, but you know that you can't be with him like that, Yuna."

The summoner's chin dipped at the mild reprimand. "I know." When she looked up at her friend again, she covered her sad expression with a wan smile. "But I can dream, can't I?" Her gaze drifted beyond Lulu's shoulder. Tidus was returning with other guardians.

Lulu heard different voices a short distance away and spotted familiar faces at the gate. "Is that Dona and Barthello?"

The other summoner and her guardian were arguing with a Crusader about not being allowed to enter the gate to Mushroom Rock Road.

"If they aren't letting them pass, they probably won't let us pass either," Yuna guessed.

"Let me talk to them," Tidus offered and strode behind a large wagon carrying a fiend that was also stopped at the gate.

Yuna watched as Luzzu and Gatta, two Crusaders from Besaid, and their wagon were permitted entry by the guards, but when Tidus tried to follow, the gate guards stopped him. He had an animated conversation with them for a moment, then returned to her side to repeat what he had learned.

The gate guard said the road was blocked for Operation Mi'ihen—an unprecedented joint venture between the Crusaders and the Al Bhed. The Crusaders were going to use fiends to lure Sin to attack, and then the Al Bhed were going to ambush it using their most powerful machina—forbidden weapons.

"Looks like we'll need to find another way around," Yuna decided.

"Shouldn't we wait?" Tidus suggested. "If the road has been trapped with machina and fiends, it sounds pretty dangerous. And if they can defeat Sin, we won't have to."

Yuna was undecided. "They could probably use our help."

"Help them?" Wakka didn't like the sound of that. "But they're using machina. It's sacrilegious!"

"Then we find another way around," Lulu agreed with Yuna. "There's probably a connection between the low road and the beach near the ruins if we go back down the road a bit."

Yuna turned around to lead her guardians back down the Miihen High Road when Maester Seymour and his travel entourage arrived. She knelt and bowed in formal greeting to the leader of her order, and the half-guado summoner acknowledged her gesture with one of his own.

"So, we meet again, Lady Yuna."

"Y-yes?"

"You look troubled. Is there anything I can do?"

"Well ..." She looked toward the barricaded gate.

"I see." Seymour went to the gate guard and gave him the same formal greeting. Then, he requested that Yuna's party be allowed to pass through behind him. There was only a small protest from the guard before returning to his post and gesturing for them to proceed.

Seymour faced the waiting party—Yuna, in particular. "It is done."

"Oh! Thank you, Your Grace!" She bowed again in awed gratitude and stayed bowed until Seymour and his party left.

"Yuna, it's time to go," Lulu prompted.

"Oh. Right." As Yuna continued through the gate with Lulu, she overheard two of her other guardians behind them.

"Who does he think he is?" Tidus complained, unimpressed.

"He's a maester. Better get used to it, ya?" Wakka was amused at the irritation written all over Tidus's face.

))((

After running for some distance across the smooth-surfaced stone that made up the crisscrossing paths through the canyon, Nooj's foot slipped on one of the raised surfaces, and he stumbled to his knees.

_ "Keep running."_

"I can't!" Nooj thought the voice that whispered in his mind was a side-effect from whatever caused them to hallucinate in the cavern.

_ "You must!"_

Nooj lowered his head between his arms while he tried to catch his breath. His machina leg simply was not good enough for this kind of thing. He hated it—hated himself. He wished he had stayed in the cavern and ended his life.

_ "Keep running!"_ Shuyin had to keep his host alive this time.

"Nooj!" One of his companions realized he had fallen behind and returned to help him stand.

"Leave me." Nooj pushed his small, wire-rimmed spectacles back up to the bridge of his nose. He stood but took cover behind a large rock formation, and his friends followed.

"Are you crazy? We've got guns on our backs, and we need to get out of here!" His younger companion moved behind him to push him forward, but Nooj wouldn't budge.

"Wait!" Their other companion uttered a breathless protest. "We can't leave yet."

"Baralai! Yes, we can!" the young man behind Nooj snapped. "They tried to kill us!"

"Sin is going to be coming up that coast any minute now," Baralai argued. "We came to fight Sin! If we run to save our own hides when we could have made a difference ... If this operation doesn't succeed, then we will be at the mercy of Sin no matter where we run."

_ Sin ... _Who was Sin? Shuyin searched Nooj's mind for more information and couldn't believe what he found. Operation Mi'ihen was the latest offensive against a giant, destructive aeon named Sin that had been terrorizing Spira since before this generation was born. Though only in his late teens, Nooj had lost his limbs in a previous run-in against the titanic beast and had been refitted with the new ones by Al Bhed machinists. He loathed his new body, though, and had joined this effort, in part, to avenge what it had done to him. The Crimson Squad had been his best hope to do that, but they had just been wiped out by the madness preserved in the Den of Woe's pyreflies. And now these three sole survivors had been shot at by their own commander—a priest of Yevon. It reminded Shuyin how Maester Renuta betrayed Lenne. He remembered his argument with Yevon about sending Lenne and the other summoners into battle against Bevelle. This looked like another cleansing. But this Sin ... Was it the same monster Bahamut mentioned when he came to ask for help? Was it the same titanic aeon Shuyin collided with above Bevelle—an aeon that could only have been summoned by Yu Yevon? _That bastard ..._

As he continued to search his host's mind, Shuyin found no trace of anything about the Founders in Nooj's memories, but Yu Yevon's teachings had somehow become immortal. Now all of Spira worshiped him as a god, and an entire church and legal system had been built around this massive aeon and those precepts. Yet no knowledge of the high summoner as a man was present among those thoughts.

"Look! Maester Seymour is here!" Baralai pointed to the blue-haired summoner and the large group that followed him toward the lift. "We should tell him what happened. He might be able to help us."

Shuyin looked up to see who Maester Seymour was, but was surprised when he also spotted ... _himself_! He made Nooj remove and wipe his glasses' lenses before replacing them for another look, but there was no mistaking it. In the group walking behind Seymour, someone was wearing an Abes uniform, and he looked just like Shuyin. _What the …_

As one of the mushroom-shaped rocks lifted Seymour's group up to the precipice, Shuyin started to make Nooj agree with Baralai about asking the half-guado maester for help despite the bounty on their heads, mainly because of his curiosity about this clone wearing his blitzball uniform. But his younger companion, the one Nooj knew as Gippal, cut in front of them.

"What if he knows about what happened?" Gippal challenged. "What if _all_ of them know what happened? What if this whole operation is just a scam to kill off as many Al Bhed as possible?"

Distracted from his double, Shuyin was glad to hear he wasn't the only one suspecting a temple cleansing.

"What are you talking about?" Baralai argued. "I'm not Al Bhed. Nooj isn't Al Bhed."

"The Crimson Squad was full of Al Bhed and Al Bhed sympathizers," Gippal insisted.

"I'm from Bevelle."

"It doesn't matter. You were willing to turn away from Yevon and use machina. All the people who volunteered for this mission are willing to use machina even though the church denounced it. They're corralling us to weed out heretics, I tell ya! That's probably why that priest tried to finish us off!"

"Maester Kinoc and the Crusaders wouldn't be part of the mission, if the temple was against it," Baralai argued again. "Now, Maester Seymour is here, too."

"And you don't find that just a little odd?" Gippal countered.

"You're being paranoid!"

"It's a trap!"

Though he was interested in learning more from their argument, Shuyin turned Nooj's head toward his "twin." He was already out of sight, but the female recorder that warned them about the execution squad was running toward the lift. While he was grateful to the woman he never met for sparing the life of his host, he realized she could be reporting their escape. He didn't know these people, so he didn't know who to trust. And apparently, they didn't even trust each other now. A priest of Yevon had betrayed him once before. Shuyin wasn't going to let that happen again. Chasing after his doppelganger or seeking aid from anyone associated with Yevon was probably not a good idea at the moment. Shuyin reminded himself that he had all the time in the world to find answers to his questions, but right now, he had to keep this host alive. "Gippal's right. This is too suspicious," he spoke using Nooj's voice instead of his own. "We need to get out of here while we still can." He made Nooj break past his friends and run toward the mouth of the canyon to escape.

))((

Paine saw Seymour's arrival and figured her three friends might have gone to him for help. She was running between the tents searching for him when she spotted Maester Kinoc speaking with Sir Auron. Stopping abruptly, she drew back behind a tent to avoid being seen but kept looking around for Seymour. Suddenly, the ground began to shake.

Gripping the tent's post, Paine looked toward the cliff. One of the Sin spawn cages had been hit with electrical magic, releasing the fiend within. But while Crusaders and Al Bhed rushed to contain it again, a larger fiend appeared. This could mean only one thing. Sin had arrived.

))((

Everyone was forced to defend themselves against the escaped Sin spawn. But Yuna and her guardians had barely killed the beast when, from the edge of the cliff, they saw a dark shadow creep under the ocean toward the beach. The Al Bhed fired their cannons into the massive aeon as it rose from the waves. Their shots did nothing, but Sin spawned more fiends after each hit. Chocobo knights charged the shores along with an onslaught of foot soldiers armed with more forbidden machina. Sin raised a sphere of magic around itself. The sphere not only resisted the powerful electrical jolt aimed at it, it absorbed the charge and then burst outward, disintegrating everything in its path.

With a growl, Tidus ran back toward the lift.

"No! Don't go down there alone!" Yuna reached for him, but Auron blocked her and pulled her back.

"Yuna! You must say here!" The warrior monk held the summoner firmly in place. He knew what was eating at Tidus's mind and that he needed to vent alone. He just hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid in the process.

))((

Below the precipice, racing along the shaking ground and trying to escape the area as fast as possible, Nooj and his friends ran out of the canyon and back toward the high road. Seconds later, Tidus came out of the canyon and turned in the opposite direction heading for the beach.

As if tired of playing at war games with puny mortals, Sin fired back at the Al Bhed laser gun. The entire contraption exploded and fell into the sea.

The blast from Sin's punishing attack threw Tidus face-down in the sand on the beach. When he lifted his head in the aftermath, he saw that the beach was littered with broken and dying bodies of the men and women who had tried to stand against Sin. Scrambling to his feet, he spotted Gatta and ran toward him, but trying to get information only resulted in a brief hysterical exchange. Tidus's attention went back to the ocean, where Sin was swimming away. For Jecht to leave so calmly after shedding so much blood … It was unforgiveable. "Don't you run away from me!" He ran into the waves after the beast.

Diving under the foaming wake, he swam as hard as he could to catch up with the creature that had once been his father. But even as he chased Sin through the underwater ruins, he realized how futile his efforts were against such magical and physical strength.

))((

The blast that threw Tidus face-down on the beach also threw Shuyin face-down in the dirt on the road. Gippal and Baralai waited to see if Nooj was okay, then all three of them ran through the high road's abandoned barricades. The skittish chocobos flew their coop, and now this section of the road was in just as much chaos as the road behind them. Shuyin concentrated on keeping up with Nooj's companions as they fled to safety somewhere else.

))((

Still in the canyon, Paine cried out and braced herself against one of the cliffs to protect herself from falling rocks that were showering dust and chunks of debris down around her. When the rumbling of Sin's attack ceased, she spotted Seymour in the small crowd gathered on the precipice, but her friends weren't among them. Running back toward the lift and returning to the canyon's mouth, Paine was undecided whether to head toward the beach or the high road.

After choosing the high road, she finally ran into her friends outside of Rin's Travel Agency. All three were exhausted, but none had been injured. When they asked why she followed, she told them she wanted to know what they saw in the cavern. They didn't know. Maybe someday they would figure out what happened with the Crimson Squad's betrayal, but not today. They only knew Maester Kinoc was unhappy that they survived.

"Moving as a group is too risky," Nooj stated.

"Wanna split up?" Gippal suggested.

"That would be wise," Baralai agreed.

Nooj turned to Paine. "Your work's done. Why are you still recording?" He reached to her recorder, gesturing for her to turn it off.

))((

Shuyin let Nooj answer for himself in the conversation that followed, carefully attending each word and facial expression. But in the end, he decided he could risk no more betrayals. As Nooj and his friends parted ways, Shuyin scanned the area for witnesses, pulled his gun, and fired at their backs.

Paine, who had been trying to get one final record of their journey together, gasped aloud when Baralai and Gippal unexpectedly fell. "Who?" She panned toward her left to see the shooter. "Nooj!"

"I said your work's done," Shuyin told her in his own voice and turned his gun on her, too. He was impressed that she didn't cry when she fell beside the other two. Then, calmly walking past the bodies of Nooj's former friends, he holstered his weapon and jogged away, alone. Shuyin was finally free.


	38. Chapter 38: Yuna's Final Aeon

Chapter 38: Yuna's Final Aeon

Operation Mi'ihen ... It was a disaster that left Tidus at a loss for words. To see first-hand Sin's destruction ... First Kilika, and now this ... How much more could Spira take?

_ "Don't you run away from me!"_ he had angrily shouted at his father before racing into the water and trying to swim after him. The ruins on the bottom of the ocean floor were a testament to another city long ago destroyed by Sin. Anger boiled through Tidus's blood as childhood resentment consumed him. His body began to change with his darkening mood, becoming long and serpentine. He flicked a thick, scaled tail and raced to catch up to the enormous aeon. Blue spines on his back and fins at his ribs helped him cut through the water like a torpedo. He raked black talons across Sin's hard shell, making it spin back toward him. Then, his long, golden-scaled body coiled around it to choke the life from it. Sin cast a spell that burned against the serpent's white underbelly, but he refused to let go, constricting even tighter. But with Sin's second spell, Tidus saw himself dissolving away into nothing. _No ... _ He couldn't lose to Jecht - not after everything he'd done to him as a kid - not after everything he'd done to Spira.

"No!" Tidus sat up in a cold sweat. He wasn't underwater at all. He'd been sleeping on the sofa in one of the Djose temple's guest rooms. But his heart thudded mercilessly against his lungs until his senses came back to reality.

Everyone else from his party had crashed for the night in other places throughout the same room. But at his shout, they sat up and squinted at him with sleepy, annoyed faces.

Tidus groaned at the nightmare and let his head drop into his hands. It was the first time he had dreamed about that since leaving Zanarkand, but this time it was more vivid, more detailed, more real. What were these dreams? Were they something more than a symbol of his feelings about his father? He thought of the Crusaders hit by Sin's magic and touched a hand to his chest to make sure he was solidly here. Then, he growled in frustration and hit the sofa.

"Man, this floor was just beginning to feel comfortable, too," Wakka complained and shoved Tidus's leg out of his way to roll back over. "What'd you have to go and yell like that for, ya?"

Auron had been sitting against the wall beneath a multi-colored window that looked more gray than colored in the dim light of night. Lifting his chin, he stared at his former ward with expectation. "The dream again?"

"Yeah," Tidus reluctantly admitted. "Sin was in it this time. Sin is what I was chasing."

The room was silent while everyone considered their own nightmarish experiences with Sin, both today and in the past. "Sin leaves scars on the mind," Lulu spoke from her place on the bed across from the sofa. "We all have them."

The door to the room opened, and Yuna poked her head through. "Is everything okay in here? I was tending to the injured in the hall, and I heard someone yell."

"Just a bad dream." Tidus shook his head. "Sorry for waking everyone up."

Yuna tip-toed into the room and crouched beside him at his knee. "I can give you some tea mixed with dream powder if you're having trouble sleeping."

"Or I could always hit him up-aside the head with my blitzball. That'll knock him out," Wakka muttered from the floor.

Tidus frowned and used the foot draped over the side of the sofa to give his friend's back a small kick.

Yuna laughed lightly behind her hand. "Well, if you need anything to help you sleep, let me know. I'm going into the temple's great hall next to see if they still need help in there."

"You're still working? Aren't you tired?"

"Yes, but ... there's so many wounded. The temple is completely out of space, and some of them won't last until morning if I can't heal them tonight."

"But if you don't get your rest, you'll run out of energy to cast your cure spells."

"I know, but I can't rest until I've done everything I could. So many were lost today."

Tidus was concerned because Yuna wasn't the type to complain about her own needs. "Well, when you come back, wake me up again, and I'll let you have the sofa."

"I'll probably just sleep in the great hall." She smiled up at him before straightening to her full height. "No more bad dreams, okay?"

"No more bad dreams," he accepted the healer's orders. "I'll dream of you instead, okay?" he added with a cheesy grin.

Yuna blushed and smiled, putting a hand to her warm cheek.

Auron shook his head.

"Oh, for the love of ..." Wakka muttered under his breath.

"Tidus, lie down. Shut up. Go to sleep," Kimahri rumbled a warning from his place on the floor on the other side of Wakka.

"Sweet dreams." Yuna slipped back through the door, closing it behind her.

In the darkness, Tidus lay back down on the sofa and propped his hands behind his head. Closing his eyes, he pushed aside all thoughts concerning Sin and sea dragons. Instead, he thought about the stars in the sky ... and Yuna.

))((

Kaila gasped in disbelief. "Yuna got _married_? But—"

"To Anima's son, Seymour," Bahamut confirmed.

The female Fayth became incensed. "How could she marry someone like Seymour when she's got someone like Tidus right under her nose? Is she blind? I practically gift-wrapped him for her!"

"Yuna married Seymour for a chance to send him. They killed him in Macalania Temple because he murdered his father and then threatened them. They're fugitives from Yevon now."

"Fugitives?" Kaila quieted with worry. "I hate that my spirit isn't strong enough to wander far like yours. I wish I could see them. Yuna can't forsake Tidus for anyone else. We worked too hard on him. He's perfect!"

"What's perfect for you might not be perfect for Yuna. However, she doesn't seem to be complaining too much." Bahamut smirked and cast a spell over the water below the houseboat. Pyreflies drew together in an illusion of Tidus and Yuna speaking in a small spring in the woods.

Kaila ran to the edge of the boat and leaned over the rail to watch in wide-eyed wonder. Then, she looked over her shoulder to Bahamut. "How did you—"

"They're camping undercover in Macalania Woods right now. But earlier tonight, they were swimming in this spring. Its water is filled with pyreflies, so I was easily able to preserve the memory of what happened to summon it here."

Kaila looked back down at the vision on the water's surface.

_ Yuna allowed herself to drift on the water's surface, floating free. "What'll I do if I give up my pilgrimage?"_

_ "Hey! Zanarkand! Let's go to Zanarkand! Not the one in Spira, the one I'm from. Yeah, we can all fly there. Everyone can go! Then, we'll have a big party at my place!"_

_ Yuna stood upright in the water, sharing his enthusiasm. "And then we could see blitzball!"_

_ "Yeah!"_

_ "Your Zanarkand Abes would play. We could all watch you play, in the stadium all lit up at night. I'd cheer and cheer 'till I couldn't cheer anymore!" She grinned as her hands hit the water._

_ "Right on!" he agreed, glad to see her cheering up again._

_ Yuna paused. "Well ... what about after the game?"_

_ "We'd go out and have fun."_

_ "In the middle of the night?" She blinked as if this was unheard of._

_ "No problem!" He laughed lightly at her reaction to that idea. "Zanarkand never sleeps!" Tidus lifted his chin to the sky and looked at the pyreflies and stars that sparkled overhead. "Let's go to the sea before sunrise. The city lights go out one by one. The stars fade." He lost himself for a moment in his memories of home and spread his arms over the water. "Then the horizon glows, almost like it's on fire. It's kinda rose-colored, right? First, in the sea, then it spreads to the sky, then to the whole city. It gets brighter and brighter until everything glows." He paused, able to see it in his mind, or at least the way it looked before Sin destroyed it. "It's really ... pretty. I know you'd like it."_

_ "Mh." She sighed slightly and saddened again. "I'd like to see it ... someday."_

_ He looked away from the stars and turned to face her. "Well, you can, Yuna. We can both go!" Though her back was to him once more, he saw a tear drop into the water and ripple away from her toward him. "Yu ..."_

_ "I can't." She began to cry. "I just can't!" Tears trickled down her face, one after another. "I can't go!" Yuna's shoulders shook with soft sobs._

_ Tidus looked lost, wondering how to comfort her. Then, moving closer to her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Yuna ..."_

_ She looked up to meet his eyes and tried not to cry anymore, but the tears wouldn't stop._

_ Only a breath away, Tidus kissed her. Yuna was wide-eyed in surprise for a moment, but he didn't notice. And she didn't resist. So, drawing his arm across her shoulders, pulling her closer still, he followed the first kiss with another. _

"Ahhh! What is he doing?" Kaila fussed, grasping the boat rail. "She's married now! He said he'd never do anything like that, but he's got just enough Shuyin left in him to kiss someone who's already taken!"

Bahamut chuckled at Kaila's reaction. "Well, technically, she's a widow because she married a dead guy. But that's not the best part. Listen to this." Bahamut froze that illusion and brought up another of them sitting on the shores of that same spring.

_ "I'll continue," Yuna said as she watched the pyreflies."I must."_

_ "Hm," Tidus commented._

_ "If I give up now, I could do anything I wanted to, and yet ... even if I was with you, I could never forget."_

_ Tidus paused to think about what that meant for the journey ahead. His expression said that even though he didn't want her to do this, he couldn't let her do it alone. "I'll go with you."_

_ She turned to him, surprised. "Hm?"_

_ "I'm your guardian," he dogmatically reminded her. "Unless I'm ... fired?" He gestured a cut across his throat._

_ Yuna giggled at his delayed doubt about whether a guardian kissing his summoner was permissible. "Stay with me until the end. Please." She bowed politely with her request for him to continue being her guardian._

_ Tidus turned his gaze back to the water in front of them. "Not until the end. ... Always." He turned his chin to give her a wry smile._

_ "Always then." She bowed in polite gratitude. After a moment, Yuna stood, so he stood with her. "Maybe you should head back to camp first."_

_ "Roger!" He stared into her eyes for a moment but then smiled and turned to walk away. He went slowly, looking up at the floating pyreflies below the stars. He seemed disappointed that she had dismissed him, so when a small whistle pierced the silence of the night, he immediately ran the short distance back to her._

_ Yuna giggled at his quick response. "Wait. I'll go with you."_

_ He nodded, glad that she had changed her mind about walking with him, but she still remained a few shy paces behind. Tidus purposefully slowed his stroll and cast a small glance over his shoulder, casually stretching his hand behind himself toward her ... just a little._

_ Yuna saw the gesture and quickened her pace a few steps to catch up … just a little. Hesitantly, the shy summoner reached for his hand._

_ Tidus smiled to himself as his fingers interlocked hers. Now they could walk back to camp._

Bahamut's illusion faded.

A smile curled Kaila's lips, and she dropped her chin onto her fist as she propped her arm on the rail and gave a contented sigh. "See? I told you. He's perfect."

"And this means that if Yuna makes it to the Final Summoning, Tidus will volunteer to be the Fayth for her Final Aeon to protect her." Bahamut smiled with hope. "If he can defeat Yevon before the attempt to possess and merge with him, maybe she won't have to die."

Kaila's smile faded slightly, and she nodded with sad agreement. The sacrifice of the Final Aeon is what this experiment was all about. And it was going better than they expected. But with the end of Yuna's pilgrimage drawing closer, Kaila couldn't help but feel uneasy with their plan.

))((

Tidus's first look at the ruins below the summit of Gagazet held him spellbound. Even in the pretty orange and pink sunset-painted sky, Zanarkand was pale and lifeless. It was true. Everything they had said was true. He could never go home. His home was dead.

Earlier that day, he had touched the wall of the fayth, and it changed his life forever. One touch had swept him into the dream, where Bahamut met him on his houseboat.

_"The people ... What, they're all dreams? Me, too?"_

_ They moved to a different part of the deck. "Yes, you're a dream of the Fayth. Your father, your mother, everyone ... All dreams. And if the Fayth stop dreaming ..."_

_ Despite what his senses told him, despite what he had always believed, despite all that he had experienced … he wasn't real. Tidus shook his head. "No! So what if I'm a dream! I ... I like being here!"_

_ "We've been dreaming so long. We're tired. Would you and your father ... Would you let us rest? Both you and your father have been touched by Sin. Sin, the one around whom all Spira - the spiral - revolves." Bahamut vanished._

_ Tidus looked for him, and he reappeared in the distance. "What are you saying?" _

_ "You two are more than just dreams now."_

With the memory of re-entering Dream Zanarkand fresh in his mind, Tidus continued to ponder what Bahamut meant in saying that. More than just a dream, yet still a dream? He tried to understand, but he just couldn't. And he couldn't tell anyone else. This was worse than telling them Sin was his father. What would Yuna think of him if she knew he wasn't real?

His hand went to his pocket. Unzipping it, he removed the small, blue memory sphere that he had found at the top of the mountain summit before heading down the road into Zanarkand. The rest of the party had gone on alone, and he had stayed behind to view it, not knowing it was Yuna's recorded messages to all of her guardians. It had saddened him to watch it, but he turned it on and forwarded it again to the part where she addressed him.

_ "So, this is what it feels like. It's a much more wonderful feeling than anything I had ever imagined. Wonderful ... but it hurts, sometimes. I wonder. I ... I just want to say thank you for everything. Maybe, ... maybe that's why it hurts. When I ... When I think about us never being together again at all ... I'm afraid."_

It had been recorded all the way back at the high road, the day before riding the chocobo. Why hadn't she said something to him sooner? Tidus clenched his teeth but continued watching.

_ "No, I shouldn't say that. I'll do that part over. Um, ..."_

_ "Whatcha up to?" he had asked, approaching from behind._

_ Embarrassed, Yuna fumbled the sphere to quickly turn it off._

Turning the item over in his hands a few times, Tidus knew he should return it to her. He wanted to confront her about the confession. But he also wanted to throw it into the sea because she was saying goodbye. Maybe he _would_ throw it into the sea, just as soon as he found a way to keep her alive.

))((

Also on the road to Zanarkand, Kaila had been waiting impatiently for their illusion's return, along with his summoner's party. It had been so long since she had seen Tidus, she almost ran to hug him as soon as she spotted him coming down the mountain slope from the Fayth Scar. It was good to have him within range of the dream again. But as he passed through her and paused behind the group to review and agonize over the sphere in his hands, she realized he wasn't his usual sunny self anymore. "You told him, didn't you?" she guessed, glancing toward Bahamut, who followed behind him.

"He touched the magic in the Fayth Scar and fell unconscious. He's still an illusion, so it was easy to draw some of his pyreflies into the dream with me. It was time he learned the truth about himself, now that they're here. I decided against telling him about Shuyin, though." The boy saddened. "Tidus doesn't want to give up what he's gained in the real world."

"Can you blame him?" Kaila looked at their illusion with full sympathy for what he must be feeling. "This goes beyond any betrayal Shuyin ever knew. Tidus's whole life is a lie. But he once told me he would be willing to let go of himself if he thought it could spare a loved one. I'm sure he will still do the right thing in the end, for her sake."

))((

Soon, Tidus would be entering the broken streets of the city where he only _thought_ he once lived. He would be passing through real ghosts trying to save a real world he had never even been a part of until this journey began. It was strange, knowing he was only a temporary means to an end, created for the sole purpose of killing his own father. Tidus sighed and gently returned the sphere to his pocket. He would decide what to do about it later. Drawing a breath, he hopped down from the ruins and crossed the road back to where his companions were camping.

They had picked up one more member to their party after crossing the Moonflow, before the incidents that led to their arrest in Bevelle. Rikku, the Al Bhed girl he had met on the ship, turned out to be Yuna's cousin. Desperate to save her cousin's life, she had been the one who told him the truth about Yuna's pilgrimage. Now, Rikku sat at the campfire, telling an animated story about their first meeting in the Baaj ruins. Tidus smiled to himself, listening to her first impressions of him after he told her he was from Zanarkand. Storytelling, he supposed, was a means of calming everyone's nerves. It was a means of delaying the inevitable end of their journey. However, as he listened to Rikku's story, Tidus realized he had created his own, just like Auron said, when he pulled him from the dream. Encouraged that he had _some_ control over his own destiny despite what the Fayth had planned for him cheered him enough to join his friends again.

"Hey, gimme a break. That was my first time fighting one of those things. _My _Zanarkand never had fiends, or Al Bhed, or ronso, or chocobos. I'll always remember the first time I rode a chocobo, though." He grinned at Yuna, and with a short hop, he crouched behind her to bury his face in the yellow, floral bow of her kimono. "I'm closing my eyes, so I can't see anything!" he mimicked her with a falsetto voice.

Everyone laughed, including Yuna. Although, she did give him a deserved push for his teasing, making him fall on his backside. Laughing with everyone else, Tidus rested his elbows on his knees and tried to remember as many details as possible about her, his friends, and this place. Even if he wasn't real, he had real memories that he could take with him to wherever dreams went when their surreal lives were done.

))((

"Welcome to Zanarkand." Lady Yunalesca greeted them inside the ruins at the Chamber of the Fayth, which they had just discovered, was empty. "I congratulate you, summoner. You have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow you with that which you seek. The Final Summoning will be yours. Now, choose." The unsent spirit gracefully descended the stairs and spread her arms.

"You must choose the one whom I will change to become the Fayth of the Final Summoning." Everyone in the group gasped, but Yunalesca remained reserved as she explained. "There must be a bond between chosen and summoner, for that is what the Final Summoning embodies: the bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends. If that bond is strong enough, its light will conquer Sin."

Tidus thought the woman sounded a lot like Seymour. Both of them thought the only way to end the suffering was more death. And when Yunalesca explained how she used her husband to summon the first Final Aeon, and pyrefly memories of Jecht's voluntary sacrifice appeared in her wake, Tidus's water dragon visions came back to him. It hurt to understand his dreams now. The Fayth wanted _him_ to become the next Final Aeon so he could break the cycle. He could almost feel their eyes on him, watching. And he knew he should step forward and volunteer. It was what he had been created for; it was the only reason he lived. But if he became the Final Aeon, Yuna would die. Nothing would change. And then her death will have been for nothing. Hadn't he learned, somewhere in his past, that dying together accomplishes nothing?

He didn't want to disappoint anyone, but it didn't make sense. How could he break the cycle if he was trapped within it? There had to be another way—a way that would end _all_ sacrifices, now and in the future. He refused to step forward. He wanted no part in their cycle.

))((

Kaila and Bahamut hid in the shadows, anxiously awaiting the Final Summoning transformation as they had so many times before when this pilgrimage came to this end. Yuna and her guardians debated this unexpected turn of events, and all of them were willing to become the Fayth of the Final Aeon—all _except_ Tidus. He argued against it, insisting there must be a way to change things.

Bahamut frowned and began to fear for their entire plan. "Why isn't Tidus volunteering? Surely he knows by now it's supposed to be him."

"Maybe he's afraid to die," Kaila whispered for fear that Yunalesca would hear them. "That's understandable, right?"

"But he's the only one who stands any kind of chance against Yevon's possession. It _has_ to be him! If he doesn't volunteer, maybe Yuna will choose him, right? Because she loves him. Their bond is the strongest." Bahamut seeped through the walls into the summoning chamber as Yuna took all of her guardians with her. Kaila silently followed.

Inside the other chamber, Yuna and her guardians argued with Yunalesca about the teachings of Yevon—the promises, the lies. The unsent high summoner began to grow impatient with their delay. "Now, choose. Who will be your Fayth? Who will be the one to renew Spira's hope?"

Everyone was silent while they awaited Yuna's decision. "No one," Yuna finally answered, stunning them all. "I would have gladly died. I live for the people of Spira and would have gladly died for them. But no more! The Final Summoning is a false tradition that should be thrown away!"

Standing behind her, arms folded at his chest, Tidus's eyes closed for a second in silent relief. Yuna had refused to sacrifice him, or anyone else. Drawing a steady breath, he opened his eyes and focused a stern, dangerous glare on Lady Yunalesca, one that might as well have come from a water dragon.

The Fayth gasped and looked at each other at a loss for words. That had _never_ been done before! Not in a thousand years! They had given Yuna the best Final Aeon anyone could imagine for her chance to defeat Sin, and she chose to throw that chance away!

Bahamut gripped the hood covering his head. "What are they _doing_? It's not possible to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon! None of the rest of us are strong enough to defeat Yevon! This is so totally screwed up!" Upset that all their hard work and plans were falling to pieces, the boy kicked the wall, but his foot passed through it.

Kaila pulled him back down and hushed him as Yuna and her guardians argued more with Yunalesca.

The unsent spirit pitied them for throwing away their reward, telling them that it was better to die with hope than to live with sorrow. Finally, Yunalesca decided she had tolerated as much impertinence as she could handle. She couldn't allow them to leave and tell anyone what they had learned: that no matter how many lives were sacrificed, and no matter how hard they tried to atone for their past crimes, Sin would always return. Revealing her fiend form—a giant Medusa-like head covered in skull-faced snakes—Yunalesca attacked. She drained their life energy and turned them into zombies, like the priests and fallen warrior monks she surrounded herself with as her guardians in the dead city.

Without being able to heal their own wounds, Yuna's party used an abundant supply of holy water, phoenix down, and hard hits on the unsent high summoner. They fought back. And … they won.

In the shocking aftermath of the battle, having permanently done away with any hope of ever receiving the Final Aeon, Yuna's exhausted party left the ruins with the same headcount they had when they arrived. The Fayth levitated along the upper wall in the summoning chamber in complete silence for a long moment before Kaila finally spoke again. "Now, what do we do?"

"Zaon got his wish for Yunalesca to join him in the Farplane. But without any way to defeat or calm Sin ..." Bahamut slowly shook his head, at a total loss for ideas about how to salvage anything. "I honestly don't know what to expect next," he fearfully admitted.

Kaila took Bahamut's hand and touched down in the center of the summoning chamber with him. "Talk to him," she suggested. "He's probably just as frightened as we are, and you can follow them anywhere in a way that I can't."

Bahamut stared at the place where Yunalesca was defeated. Not a trace was left. "They killed the aeon before it could even manifest. There's nothing for Yevon to claim." The boy drew a shaky breath and turned to face Kaila once more. "I think I've got an idea how we can still help them."

))((

As they left the interior ruins, Auron told Tidus the last piece of background missing from his story: the truth of his own death. Tidus flinched a little but realized that Auron's undead state is what allowed him to enter the dream and watch over him all those years, or at least it felt like a lot of years. Was he really seventeen? He had no idea how long or short his existence truly was anymore.

Outside the ruins, Sin—Jecht—hovered in the sky above the retreating party. Tidus realized his father had been waiting to meet him in battle and probably saw his refusal to volunteer for the transformation as another failure. Stubbornly insisting they had at least broken the cycle by not taking part in it, he promised they would find another way to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon.

Later, after Yuna's party was picked up by the ancient airship Tidus helped Rikku and her family excavate near Baaj, he found himself asking the same question as the Fayth. "So, what do we do?"

Auron turned away from his companions as they discussed proposals about how to solve their problem now. "We think, and we wait." He walked away.

Just the opposite of how confident he had been in defying Yunalesca, Tidus quirked his mouth, and his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Two things I'm bad at."

Eventually, they decided to go to Bevelle and confront the unsent Maester Mika. They suspected he knew more than he was telling about the truth behind the teachings. Mika had been mortified to find out they destroyed their only chance to receive the final aeon. He prophesied Spira's destruction and then explained to them who Yu Yevon was: a piece of history Spira had long since forgotten. The unsent maester then vanished, believing his reign was over.

Bahamut appeared to Tidus after that, and Tidus was surprised and delighted to find out that Yuna could see the boy, too. But then again, why shouldn't she? She's the Fayth's summoner. Bahamut told them a little more about their adversary since neither had ever heard of the Church of Yevon's namesake before. Bahamut told them how Yu Yevon perpetuated the cycle by merging with and possessing the Final Aeon, making sure they understood that the ancient high summoner was their ultimate target. Then, he begged Yuna to call on her aeons for help in the battle against him. Tidus remembered what the boy said after that.

_ "But, you know, when it is all over, we will wake, and our dream will end. Our dream will vanish."_

_ Tidus saddened a little. "Yeah. You've been dreaming a long time, haven't you?" _

_ Bahamut sympathized. "I'm sorry."_

_ Tidus was silent for a moment. Then he answered, "I'm grateful." And he meant it._

Yuna suspected Tidus was hiding something after that, but he had denied it. He still didn't know how to tell her.

))((

"Good afternoon. How are your Al Bhed studies coming along?" Rin asked as Tidus passed him in the corridor of the airship. Rin was an enterprising Al Bhed merchant and owner of a small chain of travel agency inns scattered throughout Spira's main roads.

Tidus owned a stack of Al Bhed books he had been collecting from the various places they visited. At one time, he had been vaguely interested in learning their language, but now he saw no point. "I'm afraid I haven't been studying much lately, what with Sin and all ..."

"Understandable. If you need help, please let me know. I will be glad to be of service in helping you learn our language."

"Yeah, for a fee." Tidus gave a curt smile.

Rin laughed lightly. "One has to make a living. Are you in need of any supplies?"

"Nah, I'm good. I ..." Tidus paused. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any memory spheres for sale, would you?"

"Ordinarily, I don't, but you are in luck. I always carry one for my own use, so this one has not been used yet. I'm willing to sell it if you like." The blond Al Bhed reached into his pocket and fished out the small, blue device.

"How much is it?" Tidus dug into his pocket for some money he'd earned from catching fiends for the Crusader training center in the Calm Lands recently.

"Five hundred gil, please."

He stopped digging. "What? It's water inside a snow globe. And it doesn't even have any snow! How can it be worth five hundred gil?"

"The water comes from Macalania Woods, where there are a lot of fiends."

"Did you get the water yourself, or did you pay someone else to do it?"

Rin laughed. "A shrewd businessman, I see. I will let you have it for half price and offer a job after you bring the Calm. How does that sound?"

Tidus blinked at the memory sphere. He might not be around after the Calm _if_ they succeeded. "Two hundred and fifty, then." He counted out the gil and passed it into the merchant's hands, accepting his new sphere.

"Thank you for your patronage, as always."

Tidus gave a light bow in response and headed back to his room in the cabin. Inside, he climbed up to the top bunk and seated himself, cross-legged. He wasn't even sure why he bought the memory sphere, really. It wasn't like he could take it with him. Setting the sphere down, he ran his fingers through his hair and lowered his chin in thought. Then, reaching into his pocket, he withdrew Yuna's memory sphere and set it down beside his. After a few minutes, with a heavy sigh, he picked up his sphere and adjusted the distance before turning it on.

"Yuna, um, ... hi." He scratched his head lightly, not sure how to say this, but it was easier to say it to a blob of pyrefly-filled water than to her or anyone else. "You're right. I _am_ a bad liar. But if you're watching this, then … I'm probably ... gone. I found out I'm ... part of the Fayth's dream, so I'm not, um …" He paused to sniffle and wipe one eye. "They said all of the dream would end, including me." He tried to smile through his sadness, but he just wasn't as good at it as she was. "Anyway, I had fun! I enjoyed it. Having a little bit of time here is better than not having any time at all, right? I'm going to miss Spira, but I'll remember it ... and you ... always." His composure slumped, and he dropped his head into his hands. "Who am I kidding? I can't do this." Hearing a knock on his door, Tidus quickly shoved both spheres under his pillow. "What do you want?" He dried his eyes.

Yuna pushed the door open a crack and peered in. "We have a recording of the hymn now. We're ready when you are." They were going through with the attempt to broadcast the "Hymn of the Fayth" to soothe Sin's temperament long enough to get some initial attacks on it, and they had asked at the temple to spread the word for as many people as possible to join in singing the song.

"Cool. I'll be there in just a minute."

She came into the room and grasped the edge of his bunk. "Are you okay? Sir Jecht is your ... I mean … it's okay to be upset about this."

Tidus gave a sarcastic laugh. "After everything he's put me through—everything he's done—you think I'd be upset? He deserves what he's got coming."

Yuna's brows rose, clearly hoping he didn't mean that. Withdrawing her hands, she gave a small nod and turned to walk away. Nagging doubt prompted her to look over her shoulder one more time before offering a concerned smile and pulling the door shut behind her.

Tidus pulled her sphere out from under his pillow. Yuna was going to live if he had anything to say about it.


	39. Chapter 39: Calm After the Storm

Chapter 39: Calm After the Storm

Nooj arrived in Luca, alone, before Shuyin released control of him and subsided into the back corners of his mind. Only then did the events immediately following Operation Mi'ihen come crashing down on him. Why had he killed his friends? _Why?_ The shock of what happened to him in the cave must have made him lose his mind. Guilt and shame settled on his shoulders enough to drive him into the sports bar and order a large drink after his long, cumbersome journey.

Shuyin had never been to Luca. He had no idea how much the city had or had not changed over the past thousand years. So, in silence, he observed and listened … and learned.

When Nooj finished his drink, he sighed and set the glass heavily on the bar. With the Crimson Squad's demise and the act of killing his friends, he was torn between thoughts of ending his life now or going home to Kilika to try to recover from his trauma. His family and friends were helping to rebuild the island after Sin destroyed it recently, but what good would that do? Sin would only come back, and they would all die anyway. Depressed, he left his payment near the glass and headed out to find a room an inn.

After laying low for a couple of long, empty days, Nooj eventually set out for Luca's docks to take a ship home, but Shuyin turned him around, back to the high road, and straight for the chocobo attendant. Nooj had no idea why he needed to go to Bevelle, but he felt it was urgent all the same. And with his limp, the chocobo was a more welcome means of transportation than walking.

Nooj rode back in the direction he came from until he drew near to Rin's Travel Agency to stop for the night. The bodies of his friends were gone. Had he inquired, he would have learned that that the Al Bhed owner of the agency heard the gunfire and brought the wounded victims inside, where he revived and healed them using magical potions from his store's stock. Had he asked, Rin could have told him that Gippal and Baralai were still in sharp disagreement over the Crimson Squad's ill-fated missions and Operation Mi'ihen, so they went their separate ways. But being a fugitive, Shuyin decided Nooj should pass on any conversations concerning his friends. Further up the road, he found a place to sleep under the open sky, instead.

A couple of days later, Nooj was back on Mushroom Rock Road. It was a risk traveling so close to where he was supposed to have been executed, but it was the shortest route to Bevelle. Stealing a cloak left on one of the Crusader's supply crates along the roadside, he drew it over his head and most of his face and body to remain hidden as he rode past the canyon. Disguised, he went slowly, eavesdropping on the Yevon-forsaken Crusaders that remained at the command center to clean up the mess. The survivors were lamenting their failure due to disobeying the temple's teachings, just as the temple warned. Kinoc was nowhere in sight, but he clearly didn't want anyone else to find out what had happened in that cavern. The Den of Woe was heavily guarded while a new lock was fitted into the door.

Gippal was right; the whole Crimson Squad operation seemed to be nothing more than a means to draw out and exterminate those willing to turn their back on the temple's teachings. In fact, the reason Operation Mi'ihen was officially condemned but personally tolerated despite that was probably because it was an easy way to exterminate non-believers among all of Kinoc's warrior ranks. There was no doubt about it now in Nooj's mind, the Temple of Yevon was corrupt from the inside out. If he survived long enough to see the next Calm, he made up his mind to do something about it, even if it meant tearing down the temples with his bare hands to expose their treachery.

Shuyin silently agreed and congratulated himself for picking a host with such a keen intellect and taste for revenge.

While passing through Guadosalam, however, Nooj was surprised to spot Baralai, alive-and-well, coming out of the home of Maester Seymour. What was he doing here? Baralai had wanted to return to the maesters for help, even after being targeted by Kinoc's guards. So his presence here now looked very suspicious. Had Baralai been part of the scam? And if Baralai had been part of it, what about Gippal? What about Paine? Remaining hidden, Nooj watched Baralai leave the tree-city through the tunnel leading to Bevelle. With a heightened mistrust of the temple and his former friend, Nooj stayed in Guadosalam longer than he anticipated to avoid running into Baralai on his journey north.

))((

On the outskirts of Bevelle, during the night, when he was sure Nooj was sleeping, Shuyin's spirit left his host's body and flew to the docks. _Lenne ..._

Diving into the depths of their watery grave, he drew pyreflies into his ghostly form and swam through the area. Of course, any bodies left from the Machina War were long gone after a thousand years. Only fish and fiends remained. "Lenne!" he called after surfacing. "It's me! Shuyin! I've come back for you! Please, tell me if you're here!"

When the sea offered no answers, he searched the lower levels of Bevelle's dungeons. He even returned to Vegnagun's storage chamber, to the place they were killed. Finally, with no luck or leads, Shuyin dispersed the pyreflies and flew back to Nooj's camp just before dawn. The morose warrior was still sleeping, so the unsent spirit nestled back into the recesses of his host's mind and tried hard not to relive the nightmare that had been his only companion for the past millennium.

After leaving Bevelle, Shuyin headed through Macalania Woods and across the Calm Lands. That evening, as he reached the base of the mountains, he saw an airship flying toward the plains from Bevelle. He could tell Nooj was surprised to see an ancient airship in flight, but it was being followed by something even more extraordinary - Sin. The airship launched a missile attack on the gigantic aeon, and the aeon fired back with strong magic. Shuyin ran behind some rocks to stay clear of the battle. But in the end, it didn't seem like much of a fight at all. Sin swallowed the ship whole, then hovered motionless and alone in the sky, as if daring anyone else to challenge it.

Nooj's body was exhausted from the long journey and needed to rest for the evening before climbing the mountain, but with Sin hovering so close over the Calm Lands, Shuyin was wary of any further action it might take. Most of the night, Sin did absolutely nothing, so Shuyin used the time to learn more about it from Nooj's mind. He was appalled by what he discovered. _The temple sacrifices summoners and their guardians to destroy Sin and bring the Calm._

This fact left the same bad taste in his mouth as finding out the Bevelle temple sacrificed Zanarkand to the Founders. He also remembered Yevon's intent to sacrifice Lenne and transform her into a Fayth—a transformation that eventually took the lives of Bahamut, Kaila, and all of Zanarkand's refugees. But even after losing all those lives in the Machina War, the temple's solution for peace was to sacrifice _more_ lives to Yevon's desire for revenge? If they truly wanted to destroy Sin, why didn't the maesters just use Vegnagun against it? Operation Mi'ihen might have succeeded if the Crusaders had been allowed to use that mega-machina. But Shuyin already knew the answer to his own question. Why kill Sin when it could be used to control people who fear it?

Shuyin slammed Nooj's machina hand into the rock he was hiding behind, chipping off fragments of stone. "Still traitor to your own people," he growled up at the monster floating above the Calm Lands. "In a thousand years, nothing has changed!" he dared to shout at the sky. Distraught that the modern world had learned nothing from the past, Shuyin thrust his back against the rock and ran his hands over his head, burying his face in his arms over his knees. Though he was free from his walls in the Den of Woe, he began to feel as if they were closing in on him once more.

The night passed without incident despite the ominous threat hovering in the sky. Shuyin allowed Nooj to sleep while he kept his silent vigil. But in the early morning darkness, a sudden explosion from within Sin's shell lit the aeon like a paper lantern. The airship shot out of the aeon's body. And Sin fell from the sky with an explosion that rippled across the Calm Lands and beyond—a ripple that burned brighter than the light of day.

The explosion abruptly awakened Nooj. Shuyin wasn't sure what happened, so he fed into his host's active thoughts. A summoner had managed to defeat Sin and bring the Calm.

Pyreflies were drawn toward Sin from all directions, like shooting stars. Yunalesca's aeons that Shuyin remembered seeing in the Machina War hovered near the airship in peaceful stasis until their bodies burst apart like fireworks on a summer night, vanishing from sight. Countless pyreflies of seemingly infinite numbers sprayed in one final ripple across the heavens. And then, Sin was gone, leaving only a thick cloud to blanket the sky before sunrise.

Neither Nooj nor Shuyin knew that ripple started in a dream or that it would change all of Spira ... forever.

))((

Kaila had been standing on the summit of Mt. Gagazet among the other Zanarkand Fayth when the bonds of Yevon's summoning spell fell away. They had been anxiously watching Sin and waiting to hear back from the Fayth summoned as aeons when everyone felt the magic fade and looked to each other in shock. For the first time in a thousand years, something had changed.

As the first ripple of pyreflies burst across the sky in a blinding flash, Kaila flew to the Fayth Scar on the mountainside. The stone node sealing the bodies of the Zanarkand refugees had faded. The life bound to the stone melted away. Closing her eyes, she tried to enter the dream, but Dream Zanarkand was gone. The stream of summoning magic shriveled into a globe and peeled back to release all the memories used to conjure it.

"Bahamut … he did it." On the verge of tears, Kaila looked back toward the mountaintop, where the other Fayth shouted for joy and flew toward the airship so a summoner could dance to send them at last. "We're free."

As she quietly followed, Kaila was sad to be leaving Spira but relieved to know people would no longer suffer from Yevon's ancient curse. Most of all, she was proud of Tidus. In his short existence, the illusion had grown, changed, dreamed, lived, and loved like a real person. He had done the impossible by defeating Sin and Yu Yevon without the Final Aeon. But he had done it his own way, making his own choices, and inspiring Yuna to do the same. Flying to him on the airship deck, Kaila had just enough time to give Tidus a ghostly hug before her pyreflies released her to the Farplane.

))((

On the deck of the airship, Yuna twirled her summoning staff and danced her somber dance. She was sad but relieved to be sending countless souls to rest. It had been an exhausting and emotional journey. After Tidus struck the killing blow to Sir Jecht, he held his dying father in his arms and cried without shame over his shameful deed. Yuna reminded him that Sir Jecht was now free. It had been difficult to say goodbye to Sir Auron when his pyreflies began to disperse at Jecht's sending. But he was ready to rest, too, now that his promises had been fulfilled. And she had barely been able to see through her tears as she fought each of her aeons after Yevon possessed them. But she saw the wisdom in Bahamut's suggestion to call on them in the final battle against him.

Tidus fulfilled part of his destiny when he refused to be part of the cycle. He fulfilled the other half when his sword cleaved Yevon's blackened, no-longer-human heart, banishing the hate-poisoned spirit from the world of the living once and for all. And he had told his friends the truth about himself between those battles, so they would know what happened if he disappeared. But nothing could have prepared Yuna for the moment Tidus started to fade. Stopping her spirit dance, Yuna stared at the magical colors that played across his translucent hands, then stubbornly shook her head. (1)

"I ..." Tidus tried to sound upbeat for her, despite his own sadness, "… have to return."

Yuna shook her head again, unwilling to accept this.

Her refusal only drew a more apologetic look from Tidus since he was helpless to prevent his own dismissal amid the Fayth's sending. "Wasn't able to lead you into Zanarkand. I'm sorry." Short and sweet should make it easier to say goodbye. So, as he started to leave, he took one last look at his new friends. "See ya, okay?"

Wakka grunted in protest and reached to stop him but realized the futility of the gesture.

"We're gonna see you again, right?" Rikku called out. "Right?"

As Tidus headed toward the airship's bow, Yuna ran after him, desperate to hold onto him, to keep him from fading.

"Yuna!" Kimahri called out.

Tidus turned and reached out as soon as he heard her footsteps following, but instead of being able to hold onto each other, Yuna fell right through him.

Everyone gasped.

But it was the soft sobs of Tidus's disbelief mixed with the last of his real tears as he watched several pyreflies rise around her—his pyreflies—that Yuna heard above all else. Her own magic had banished him from the world he helped save. In refusing to sacrifice him for the Final Aeon, she sacrificed him anyway for the Eternal Calm. His life had been forfeit from the moment he left the dream, regardless of whether he became the Final Aeon or not, regardless of whether they won or lost. The price he had to pay seemed so unfair, so … cruel. And yet, he stayed to see it through.

Yuna made herself stand, but she was afraid that she would start crying if she turned to face him again. She didn't want her selfish desire for him to stay to make him feel worse about having to go. Spira was free because of him. She was alive because of him. What could she possibly say or offer in return for everything he had done for them. She wanted to say so much, but all he could take with him was their gratitude. "Thank you." (2)

She didn't see Tidus turn in sad surprise, but she felt his ghost-like arms fold over her shoulders for one last embrace. Closing her eyes, she tried to shut out everything but his nearness until he released her. Then, feeling his warmth pass through her, Yuna caught her breath to stop her tears. She tried to remain strong, for his sake, as he walked, then ran to the edge of the ship's bow, but her heart broke as she watched him jump into the clouds above the sunrise. Crumbling within, Yuna turned and ran back into the airship.

In the cabin, Yuna made her way to the room Tidus had shared with Wakka. Climbing onto the top bunk where he used to sleep, she curled into the unmade covers, breathed in his scent, and finally gave herself permission to cry. She had successfully brought the Calm to Spira once more, and what she hoped would be the Eternal Calm this time, now that Yu Yevon was defeated, too. She should have been happy, but it hurt that Tidus wasn't here to share it. All that remained of him now was her memories and the knowledge of what he did for them.

After a few minutes, Rikku knocked on the doorsill, quietly approached the bunk, and dried her cousin's tears with a tissue. "Maybe we'll see him again someday, you know?" Rikku sniffled and wiped at her own tears with the back of her hand. "If we all try hard to dream about him when we go to sleep tonight ... maybe he'll be back tomorrow."

"He wasn't our dream." Sniffling, Yuna accepted and pressed the tissue to her red eyes. "He belonged to the Fayth, and they are gone now."

Rikku nodded in sad understanding and took Yuna's hand in hers to comfort her.

"Rikku, thank you, but ..."

"It's okay. Take your time. We're here if you need us." The Al Bhed girl smoothed the grieving summoner's hair out of her face, then excused herself from the room as quietly as she came.

Yuna stared at the wall for a long moment. He would be holding her if he were here. She might even be lucky enough to receive another kiss. Everyone would be laughing and cheering. And all of Spira would have lots of parties to celebrate the Calm - the _real_ Calm. But he was not real. And yet, he had been so realistic. How could he not be real? His absence felt like a deep wound, one that crushed her soul and stole her breath.

Curling her knees to her chest, she let her tears continue to fall; but as she slipped a hand under his pillow, her fingers touched something hard and cold. Curious, she sat up and lifted the pillow to find a memory sphere. She thought at first it was hers but remembered he had thrown that overboard. Subconsciously holding her breath, she touched the activation button.

_"Yuna, um, ... hi." Tidus scratched his head as if not sure what to say. "You're right. I am a bad liar. But if you're watching this, then … I'm probably ... gone. I found out I'm ... part of the Fayth's dream, so I'm not, um …" He paused to sniffle and wipe one eye. "They said all of the dream would end … including me." He tried to smile through his sadness. "Anyway, ... I had fun! I enjoyed it. Having a little bit of time here is better than not having any time at all, right? I'm going to miss Spira, but I'll remember it ... and you … always." With a heavy sigh, his composure slumped, and he dropped his head into his hands. "Who am I kidding? I can't do this." Hearing a knock on his door, Tidus quickly shoved both spheres under his pillow._

Yuna smiled and wiped a tear from her cheek. Clutching the sphere to her heart, she lay back down on his pillow and closed her eyes. Maybe Rikku was right. Maybe if she dreamed about him tonight, he'd come back tomorrow. And if that didn't work, perhaps she could call him back with a whistle. And if that didn't work, she'd just have to think of something else. She would leave no stone unturned, searching for a way to bring him back.

))((

After the pyrefly magic that held his physical body together was dispersed by Yuna's sending, Tidus's unique, reinvented soul flew to the mists of the Farplane. Lord Braska, Auron, and his father were waiting to congratulate him. He gave his dad a high-five, and then behind him, his mother gave him a hug. As Bahamut came forward, he gave the boy a high-five, too. But turning around, he faced Kaila. She also had been part of this plan? Now, he understood her test. Kaila gave him a hug, and then all the familiar faces vanished. Or maybe he was the one that vanished. He wasn't sure.

))((

Shuyin reclaimed control of Nooj and continued north to Zanarkand. But as he passed by the wall of the Fayth, he stopped to examine it. Shadowed outlines of bodies remained carved in stone, but the magical tomb was gray and empty. Shuyin wanted to cry out for Bahamut or Kaila to see if they would appear, but he dare not. It might leave Nooj asking too many questions about the voice within. Right now, his host believed his own mental trauma caused him to hear whispers and lose control. Shuyin wanted it to stay that way.

The unsent spirit roamed every inch of Zanarkand that was still above the surface of the water. Lenne was nowhere to be found. Discouraged, Shuyin sat down on the edge of the shore and tried to rethink his strategy. Just when he was ready to give up hope, he remembered his dad telling him that if he got lost while camping, he should stay in one place, and eventually, someone would find him. Maybe if he stayed in one place and waited long enough, Lenne would come looking for him. He didn't want to wait, though; he hated this world and all its problems. His thoughts darkened toward Vegnagun once more.

Nooj was thinking about Vegnagun, too, still trying to figure out what he saw. Shuyin wondered if he should tell him what he knew about the colossus or let him figure it out on his own. Then, he realized if he played his cards right while waiting for Lenne, he might be able to use Nooj's insecurities to his advantage and accomplish his other goal as well. Nooj's mistrust of Yevon was the perfect tool for manipulating him into ending all fighting on Spira once and for all. _"Go to Djose,"_ Shuyin seeded a suggestion into the fertile soil of Nooj's confused and embittered mind.

Nooj frowned at the whispering voice. "No." He felt stupid talking to himself, but he felt even more ridiculous about not knowing why he walked all this distance to Zanarkand. "Maester Kinoc is in Djose. He betrayed us. I can't go back there."

_ "But that's exactly why you must go_. _The temple and its teachings are corrupt. Maester Kinoc conveniently destroyed an elite fighting force without explanation to anyone. He knows about this weapon you saw and the girl who died because of it, or he wouldn't have tried to kill you for describing it,"_ Shuyin confirmed Nooj's suspicions. _"The Church of Yevon probably knows much more about the past, but they don't want to tell the people of Spira. Keeping the people of Spira ignorant is one way to control them—like sheep led to slaughter. If you spread the word that the Fayth have left, people will demand that the maesters explain why the teachings are flawed. The only way to find out the truth about Kinoc's betrayal is to expose the temples' secrets. Find a connection, follow it, expose it. Tear down the temple walls, and let Spira learn the truth behind the lies. Your truth is hidden in Djose, behind Kinoc."_

"Expose the truth behind the lies," Nooj muttered to himself, slowly accepting the wisdom of his own inner voice.

))((

On his return from Zanarkand's ruins, Nooj stopped in Bevelle. Shocking news traveled through the streets. Maesters Mika, Seymour, and Kinoc had all vanished without a trace. "Unsent" was the buzzword that traveled along with those rumors. Not only had tales of the Calm traveled ahead of him, but also, the High Summoner survived the battle and was going to be giving a speech in Luca soon, hailed with much fanfare. Spira was in for some sweeping changes now that it was bereft of its traditional leadership.

With Maester Kinoc gone, Nooj realized his appointment in Djose was pointless. So, he continued on his way home, but he did not give up his desire to turn Yevon upside down. In fact, these rumors would work in his best interest. Unsent maesters? What kind of conspiracy was the temple trying to pull this time? Nooj decided to speak with Baralai when he stopped in Guadosalam. Maybe he could get some information from him, now that Maester Seymour was gone.

_ "Bad idea_,_"_ Shuyin whispered. _"Remember, Baralai could have been part of the Crimson Squad trap. Baralai should be avoided—him and any remaining maesters. You want to talk to someone close enough to know their secrets but distant enough to sell them out for the right price."_

Nooj knocked on the door of the former maester's manor.

It was answered by two Yevonite guards he remembered seeing, though their uniforms were different now. "Maester Seymour isn't here anymore, and all of the guado have fled Guadosalam," one of them droned. Apparently, he had repeated this news more times than he cared to other visitors. "This manor has been claimed by the Leblanc Syndicate. What do you want?"

"Leblanc Syndicate?" Nooj was puzzled. That changeover had happened fast. Then again, he had traveled slow. "You ... no longer work for Yevon?"

"No way, no how!" the short, round one answered. "We got a new boss since those Yevonites were all dead guys."

"Is there a man named Baralai staying here?" Nooj asked.

"Nope. He left for Bevelle when the guado left."

Nooj frowned. "Would you two gentlemen mind gleaning some information on the current state of affairs within Yevon for me? I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee."

"You have to ask our new boss," the tall, thin one told him. "Or better yet, perhaps she could get the job done for you. She has the largest syndicate in all of Spira, and her operatives are everywhere."

Crime syndicate … Nooj understood now. He wanted no part in illegal activities. However, a spy might be useful. So would a network willing to spread damaging news about the temple. "May I speak to your boss?"

"Right this way, sir. Right this way!" The rotund guard showed him inside to the dining hall where a shapely blond woman in a low-cut, pink dress was whacking her fan over the heads of her movers. "Someone to see you, Boss!"

Leblanc turned around and froze in place. Her eyes roamed the tall, muscular young man with his long, light brown hair. And despite his half-machina body, she smiled. "What can I do for you, love?"

Shuyin would have rolled his eyes, but that would have spoiled her impression of Nooj. He decided Nooj was completely on his own with this woman.

"I need help getting information on the Church of Yevon. Or rather, _from_ them. I have reason to believe they're hiding more secrets than unsent maesters from the people of Spira. And I intend to do something about it."

"Hm. Sounds risky, but interesting." She grinned and folded her fan as she came close—very close—to his side. "Do tell me more."

))((

_(Two years later ...)_

Seagulls flew lazily over the bay of Besaid as Rikku, Yuna, and Wakka stood on the deck of an Al Bhed salvage ship that Rikku and her brother used to hunt for buried machina. Rikku poked Wakka in the belly several times, teasing him about gaining weight since his retirement from blitzball, and she asked how Lulu was getting along in her pregnancy since they were married and expecting soon. Yuna smiled and lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the bright sun in the sky as her eyes followed the gliding circles of the birds overhead. Life seemed more peaceful and simple now that the Calm was here. And yet … it didn't.

With Yevon gone, new factions were vying for leadership, and everyone seemed to want the High Summoner to lend her presence to their agendas. It was very worrisome. Though Spira was free from Sin, and the teachings of Yevon no longer ruled the land, the Calm didn't feel as calm as Yuna hoped.

"Is Kimahri still at Mount Gagazet?" Wakka asked of Rikku.

"Yep, yep! He's teaching the Ronso orphans lots of things. He's a pretty good teacher. Anyway, I brought you something from Kimahri today." Rikku dug into her pocket and pulled out the gift item. "He said he found it up in the mountain."

"A sphere?" Not the sort of present Yuna was expecting, but she was intrigued.

"Looks kinda strange, huh?" Wakka commented.

"Yuna, watch carefully, okay?" Rikku turned the sphere on and held it for her cousin to see.

Static rolled across the lens, and chains clanked and rattled in the background. But between the noise, Tidus appeared to be trapped inside a cage.

Yuna's eyes widened in disbelief and confusion.

He was angry and complaining about trying to save a summoner. It made absolutely no sense that he would be in jail, speaking about her like that. But Yuna blushed and smiled at the way that he called her his girl. He had never actually used those terms before he disappeared, but if only there had been more time before ...

Wakka and Rikku were as puzzled about the strange sphere as Yuna was, but after a short argument, Rikku talked her into going on a treasure hunt to hopefully find some answers.

))((

An ancient memory sphere bobbed on the ocean's undulating surface before a hand reached to grasp it. "Hm ..." Yuna turned the sphere over in her sandy, wet hands and pressed the activation button.

_ A sad young woman sat confined in a cage until a sound drew her attention._

_ A garbled sound was broken by static. "... I'll get you out of there. I promise."_

_ The young woman looked around as white lines zig-zagged across the lens. _

_ "... I'm here. I'm coming for you, okay? Just hang on," an unseen male voice insisted._

_ "Where are you?" The young woman stood and frantically looked around some more._

_ "Is there a sphere camera ... there? ... -ing you on a monitor."_

_ She lifted her chin and looked across the ceiling. Static warped the screen, nearly clearing any image for a second before she spoke again. "... anything stupid! If they catch both of us ..." She was cut off by another white-streaked black-out._

Yuna tapped a finger against her cheek and frowned. The sound and image were severely distorted.

"Is it worth anything?" Paine asked. She had joined Rikku and her brother's sphere hunting group just before Yuna did, in hopes of finding her lost recordings and answers concerning what happened to her friends in the Crimson Squad. As Paine came to Yuna's side to see their catch, the former summoner touched the play button again.

Yuna looked to her cousin as Rikku joined them. "Doesn't he sound a little like ..."

"Hmmm ..." Rikku skeptically tilted her chin.

"Someone you know?" Paine asked.

"I'm ... not sure," Yuna answered, troubled. Maybe she just missed him so much that she was beginning to think every unclear guy in a sphere might be Tidus.

"It can't be him," Rikku decided. "What would he be doing talking to another girl like that?"

"Maybe she's his girlfriend." Paine met immediate, unhappy expressions from both Yuna and Rikku. "Or ... sister," she altered her suggestion to appease them.

"Well, that outfit she's wearing is kinda cute. Maybe you could use it as a dress sphere," Rikku suggested.

"Did you find anything?" Shinra, the Al Bhed whiz kid from their sphere hunting team, came to them and held out his hands to receive the orb.

Yuna watched it a third time, trying hard to hear the male voice despite the damage due to unknown years of exposure to the elements. "Can you change it into a dress sphere without damaging the content?" she asked of the small boy, who happened to be an engineering genius.

"We can erase it to use as a dress sphere or keep it as it is, but you can't have it both ways."

))((

_ "No! Don't erase it!"_ Lenne's awareness within the sphere perked up. She had been drifting in the ocean for so long that her soul felt sluggish and lost to its own existence. Now that she was in the company of someone other than fish and fiends, she had been listening. "_It's all I have left of him! Please, don't erase it!"_ That's what Lenne would have told Yuna if she could have summoned enough pyreflies to appear before her and speak. But the only pyreflies available were the few that kept this small, damaged memory alive within the glass orb.

))((

Yuna hated to destroy the sphere without knowing, but she had no clues about who owned the other recorded voice. "Dress sphere." She gave her decision a firm nod and handed the sphere to Shinra, though she almost immediately wanted it back.

"Let's go make the preparations." The Al Bhed boy cupped the sphere carefully in his hands and hurried back to the Gullwings' airship. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine followed him to his work station. "I recommend a very light task for this one—mostly magic," he suggested. "How about something like a bard? You know, those people that can sing spells and command magic with just their voices?"

"A spell-singer?" Yuna gave a light laugh. "Well, I ... guess so. I've always loved music, but I never sang in front of other people before."

))((

_ Song magic?_ Lenne couldn't believe her luck to have been found by someone who loved music. Traveling with this young woman could be an exciting diversion after floating around in the ocean for so long. Maybe this young woman needed her help in finding the courage to get over her stage fright. Perhaps by traveling with her, she could find out what happened to Shuyin. Lenne replayed the memory of him promising to free her. Listening to his voice would never be a substitute for finding him, so she decided she could be at peace with whatever this young woman did with her sphere.

))((

When Shinra finished copying the image of the singer's attire and transforming the memory sphere into a dress sphere, he fitted the shrunken glass ball into Yuna's new garment grid. "Try it on." He handed it back to her.

Yuna accepted the newly adjusted gold plate and touched the marble containing the new songstress outfit. As the magical garment wove itself around her, she was overwhelmed with sadness. But when it settled after a few seconds, she walked to the mirror to view herself in the light brown knee-high boots; short, black skirt; and purple, ruffled blouse.

"Hey, that looks great on you!" Rikku stood behind her cousin. "You know, you could use a new haircut to go with that new style."

"Haircut?" Yuna snatched the long braid that reached down to her calves and pulled it protectively over her shoulder. Everyone laughed at her panic. Then, Yuna laughed, too. _Of course_, Rikku couldn't have meant something that drastic. Yuna looked at her reflection in the mirror once more. She loved her new dress, but she wondered if she had made the right decision to destroy the memory within the sphere.

Later that day, Yuna kept thinking of the voice she heard in the converted dress sphere. Hesitantly, she walked to her dresser and pulled open her bottom drawer. Tucked among her sleepwear was a small chest of keepsakes. She had left Besaid rather abruptly without anyone but Wakka knowing, but this was one thing she couldn't leave without. Opening the chest, she withdrew the small, blue memory sphere found under Tidus's pillow. She had lost count of the number of times she viewed it, but now she wanted to view it again, just to hear his voice.

When it finished playing, Yuna put away her most treasured sphere and left the cabin for the bridge. While Shinra's seat was unoccupied, she sat down and punched up the sphere that Kimahri gave them, to view it on-screen for comparison. That voice ... Yuna folded her arms on the console and rested her cheek on them. Listening to his voice was no substitute for finding him if he really was—somehow—still somewhere on Spira. But it made her more determined to keep looking.

))((

Lenne watched Yuna's first sphere with her and was amazed at the similarities between the voice and face in that sphere and her own memories of Shuyin. He had the same body language, the same facial expressions, and yet somehow, it didn't quite seem like him. Who was this person?

The second sphere, however ...

_ Shuyin! _She immediately recognized the young man rattling the bars of the prison cage in Bevelle's underground. If Yuna was hunting for clues about what happened to Shuyin, Lenne intended to stick with her every step of the way.

))((

Author's Notes:

(1) There is heavy use of official game dialog throughout this story. I make no claim to it. I reference it only to connect my plot with game events. Most of the game dialog I use comes from the English game since I'm writing in English. But here, I referenced Japanese game dialog because I like its flow and meaning better. This is my translation, so that is why it is different from the English game or what someone else might have translated from the Japanese game.

(2) In the English version of the game, Yuna's last words to Tidus are, "I love you." But the Japanese version says, "Arigatou/Thank you." I prefer the Japanese because of the nuances in her gratitude, compared to a confession of love. He already knows she loves him, based on her actions and sphere farewell/confession. But acknowledging his unselfish sacrifice above her own selfish feelings says so much more about how deeply she loves, respects, and understands him. Because they both know she can never repay the price he paid to save her and all of Spira.


	40. Chapter 40: Star-Crossed Search

Chapter 40: Star-Crossed Search

_ "You know, you're all I can count on to save Lenne."_

Yuna sat on the Celsius airship's top deck with her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocked back and forth. She had been singing, dancing, and having fun, but that phrase had been repeating in her mind ever since she heard it. It had come from a sphere they had recently stolen from the Kilika temple, and it had another image that looked like Tidus. Despite her attempts to forget about it, she only became more irritated. "Who's Lenne? Why ... why am I so mad? Who the heck is Lenne?" Her outburst drew strange looks from her friends behind her. "I'm going to bed," she announced.

Yuna marched inside the airship and paced on the lift as it rose. Running down the hall to the crew's cabin and up the stairs to the loft, she went straight to her bed. She was so tired that she didn't even bother to change out of her singer dress sphere before lying down in a huff. "Lenne," she grumbled to herself and closed her eyes, hoping to fall asleep.

))((

Lenne had seen that sphere when the Gullwings found it—Shuyin's attempted acquisition of Vegnagun, which led to his initial arrest. She wanted to see it again. She wanted to see his face clearly one more time before they returned it. _"Yuna?"_ Lenne tried to reach into her subconscience. _"Can you hear me? Yuna, please don't give the sphere back. You don't understand what happened to him—to us."_ Lenne's spirit felt as if she were weeping, even if tears could not be shed.

Yuna winced and stirred in her sleep, but she was too deep in slumber to be aware of the voice trying to reach her, and Lenne's spirit had grown too weak in her retreat from reality in her unsent state.

_ "Here, I'll show you."_ Lenne used the pyreflies that helped make up the magical weave in her dress to recreate memories of their frantic run through the halls of the Bevelle dungeon toward Vegnagun.

Yuna's heart raced as she saw in her dreams, not Lenne and Shuyin, but herself and Tidus. They fled for their lives, stopped in front of a frighteningly large machina, and were ripped apart by the bullets of a warrior monk execution squad. That was all she could handle before she woke and sat up, wide-eyed and panicked. "What ..."

Rikku and Paine stood over her, worried.

"What 'what'?" Paine asked.

"It must have been a dream," Yuna guessed.

"A dream's a dream."

"Blame it on your new jammies." Rikku grinned.

Yuna looked down and realized she had fallen asleep in her dress, then she laughed lightly at her silly mistake.

Within the dress sphere, Lenne pouted. She had no idea what Yuna had seen, but she didn't seem to understand the message. It was tempting to reach into reality once more, but she feared that her unsent soul would become a fiend if she did. That sphere had become her sanctuary, keeping her soul safe and keeping others safe from her soul. She sometimes wondered why she continued hanging on, but she persisted because she feared Shuyin was still out there somewhere, underneath the stars, lost and alone. There was something she needed to tell him before she could rest in peace.

))((

It had taken two long years to rebuild Kilika, but now it was a bustling town—a town in which Nooj's political revolutionist party, the Youth League, was thriving. His plans to build a new headquarters there were moving along well, but for now, he had taken a semi-permanent position on the precipice overlooking Mushroom Rock Road. His tower sat over the spot where Kinoc's tent had once been the Operation Mi'ihen command center above the Den of Woe. Perhaps it was divine justice since the Youth League made an effort to make ex-communicated and disenchanted Crusaders feel welcome among their growing ranks. They were also gaining membership from other citizens across Spira.

The Church of Yevon fell into disgrace when High Summoner Yuna and her guardians exposed the teachings to be an empty tradition. But many conservatives did not want all of the temples' teachings to fade just because of a few errant ones. New praetors moved into leadership to replace the old maesters, and after some internal shuffling, Nooj wasn't surprised to find that Baralai had taken the lead in organizing a new church founded on the ideas of the old one. As Praetor, Baralai tried to assure the people of Spira that New Yevon was different, but Nooj only saw more well-guarded secrets. He still intended to break the temple one way or another to find out exactly what it was hiding.

By this time Nooj established a relationship with the Leblanc Syndicate, its flamboyant leader had become involved in the latest craze of sphere hunting. And her desire to find spheres for him would eventually unlock the magical combination of the door to the Den of Woe. Nooj was still seeking answers about what he had seen and experienced in that cavern. He almost joined the original sphere hunters' guild because, like them, he believed spheres were the key to unlocking the truth about Spira's past. However, unlike them, Nooj wanted to expose the truth, not destroy it. When the sphere hunting organization broke into individual enterprises, Leblanc was more than happy to set her goons onto finding any spheres Nooj expressed an interest in. She had no qualms about how she got them for him, and Nooj didn't question her methods. The woman doted on him, so he was content to make use of her devotion.

When he invited High Summoner Yuna to join his quest for uprooting the temples' secrets, she declined. But he later found out that she, too, had joined a sphere hunting guild—the same one as Paine. Even Gippal had returned to public life after the Al Bhed Home on Bikanel was attacked by the guado, in collaboration with Yevon. He had been right that Yevon was trying to out to wipe out as many heretics as possible. The spheres they found were proof of that. And now that the former maesters of Yevon were gone and the church no longer had the power it once did, the Al Bhed were inserting themselves and their machina back into mainstream society. Gippal's organization, the Machine Faction, had seen to that. Deep down, Nooj was grateful that his attempt to kill his friends had failed. But there was bitterness between them now. And they had not spoken to each other on a personal level since.

From fugitive to founder, the mantle of being the Youth League's meyvn sometimes felt heavy. Nooj's machina limbs sometimes made the rest of him feel lifeless and cold. His mind was still haunted by despair, still hiding the shame of his madness and his guilt concerning his friends. Sometimes he would stare into space feeling lost to another time and place, though he could never remember his exact thoughts during those times. It was like sleepwalking, being awake but not aware of what his own body was doing. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone discovered his madness, or he gave in to it again. Nooj couldn't have known that half of the despair he felt was Shuyin's.

))((

Nooj's lost moments were the times when Shuyin surfaced from the recesses of his mind. For the most part, the unsent spirit let his host live his own life and make his own decisions, actively encouraging him here and there along the way to keep him alive and well … and informed. But during those times when Shuyin grew impatient and discouraged, he dropped Vegnagun's name into Nooj's subconscious to prompt him toward more research. Disguised as guards, Leblanc's goons infiltrated the temple and copied files on the weapon that dated back to its creation. He made Nooj confront Baralai about it, asking about New Yevon's intentions in keeping it hidden. But the praetor refused to give a direct answer. So, under Shuyin's suggestion, Nooj called for a raid on the Kilika temple to gather evidence—a sphere that Leblanc said revealed a large machina weapon. Nooj didn't get the sphere; the High Summoner's guild did. But oddly enough, Lady Yuna brought it to him. She had watched it, and he advised her to forget about what she saw, to not get involved.

Shuyin listened to their discussion without participation until Yuna asked the identity of a young man in the sphere. He felt a sense of familiarity in the way that she worded her question. And he heard the disappointment in her voice when Nooj answered honestly that he didn't know. Shuyin was sure _he_ was the one in the sphere, but why was Yuna looking for him? He gave this young woman a long, hard look, wondering if maybe ... No, if Lenne was with her somehow, the same way he was with Nooj, he would have felt it. He was sure of it. Wasn't he?

"Wait!" Shuyin stood, using Nooj's voice before the High Summoner and her companions walked out the door. "Have you seen ... I mean, ..." He paused, trying to think of a better way to inquire without giving away information. "Why do you want to know who he is?"

With a trace of sadness, Yuna's eyes shifted. "I'm ... looking for someone I lost two years ago."

Shuyin knew better than to expect much, but he was disappointed all the same. "Only two? This sphere is a thousand years old."

Yuna's expression mirrored his disappointment. "He looks so much like him. I just thought maybe ... But of course, it couldn't be him if the sphere is that old."

"No, I guess not," he quietly agreed.

In Yuna's dress sphere grid, Lenne couldn't sense Shuyin's presence. Even if Yuna had been _wearing_ Lenne's dress sphere, she would have seen Nooj instead. Though Lenne's soul was in the same room, Shuyin could sense nothing more than some strange urge to stall Yuna's exit. But with no valid excuses to make her stay, Shuyin sat back down and watched her and her friends leave.

Picking up the sphere she had given to Nooj, Shuyin touched the activation button to play the recording. As suspected, he was the young man with Vegangun. But when he pondered Yuna's odd inquiry, he recalled the first time he saw her. It was two years ago at Operation Mi'ihen, and she was traveling with a young man that looked exactly like him. His "twin" even wore an Abes uniform. Shuyin realized his concern for finding Lenne, keeping Nooj alive, and researching Vegnagun made him forget to investigate his doppelganger. But now Yuna didn't even know where this poser was. Shuyin wished he had stalled her exit by asking more questions. But then he would have had to explain himself for being nosy. At the very least, he sympathized with the fact that she missed him, whoever he was.

It had been two years since his escape from the warding glyphs of the Den of Woe. Why had Lenne not come looking for him the way Yuna searched for her lost friend? Maybe Lenne didn't want to find him. Maybe Lenne hated him now. Perhaps Kaila and Bahamut were right, and she went to the Farplane without him because unsent souls were so easily tainted with malice. Maybe he was waiting here in one place for something that would never happen.

Shuyin set down the sphere and removed Nooj's thin wire glasses from his nose to rest his face in his palms for a dark moment. The High Summoner knew about Vegnagun now, so maybe it was time to push all that research for his other plan into action instead of waiting for Lenne. He knew where Vegnagun was hidden, and now Nooj did, too, thanks to that sphere.

))((

Though the Farplane was a place of eternal rest, the pieces of Tidus's soul spent time thinking, ... remembering. At first, he simply remembered the flow of his journey from beginning to end. Then, he focused on his favorite parts of it. Eventually, he challenged himself to remember as many fine details as he could. But this was not restful or peaceful. It was painful. He had experienced friendship and love, only to have to let it go. He ached with loneliness more than when he was the only soul among a city full of illusions. And he wished there was a way to see her again one more time. So, though it was painful, he returned to those memories, afraid that if he rested, he would lose them, too. And his thoughts continued to wander the Farplane, seeking the impossible—a way out of his banishment.

))((

The other spirits there did not interact as much as the Fayth had when bound within the dream. Souls at rest slept, or at least they were supposed to. But when Tidus's memories actively replayed within the mists, they often disturbed other spirits that happened to be near.

"That boy's going to drive us all nuts," Jecht finally spoke out.

"It's because he misses her." Dannae sympathized with her son. "He's restless because he doesn't belong here yet."

"He can't spend an eternity here if he's unable to rest," Auron agreed.

"Maybe it's because he is not whole," Kaila suggested. "He's not holding together very well without the magic of the dream. Maybe if he could merge with Shuyin again ..."

"I feel as if I have two different sons," Dannae countered. "Is it even possible for them to become one again?"

Bahamut considered this. "I'm not sure. But Shuyin is not likely to come home. He's not himself anymore. His soul is poisoned with hatred, and he refuses to rest until he finds Lenne."

"He always was a stubborn one," Jecht grumped.

"And that surprises you?" Braska arrived with a warm smile.

"He woke you, too, huh?" Jecht guessed.

Braska laughed in an amused, forgiving manner. "I'm touched by the compassion he yields for my daughter. It truly is a shame he wasn't real. I could not have picked a better person to entrust her to. He _does_ have a good heart. And though I never met Shuyin, I believe that deep down the same must be true of him." It was a compliment for Jecht and Dannae, to cushion the painful news of what Shuyin had become.

"Maybe if we found Lenne, she could convince Shuyin to come back," Kaila suggested. "He'd listen to her."

"Where would we even begin to look? She's unsent, too," Bahamut reminded her.

))((

Tidus's thoughts roamed the netherworld mists, oblivious to their gathering and discussion about him. He could not use pyreflies to recreate his form into a ghost like they could. His soul was small and weak by comparison, a dream broken into individual thoughts. He felt everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Only one thought unified those scattered feelings into the collective consciousness that he used to be. _Yuna ..._

))((

Careful to avoid guards where possible, Shuyin took Nooj to Bevelle and sneaked into the temple's lower levels. He fought his way past the dungeon fiends to follow the same route that led to his death. Finally, he found the room where Vegnagun was hidden. "We meet again," he addressed it like an old friend, his own voice layered over Nooj's. "Remember me? We were going to help Lenne escape. We were going to stop Bevelle from destroying what was left of Zanarkand. But I guess I wasn't as bulletproof as you are. You saw what happened to us. You are the only one besides the firing squad who witnessed our deaths. It's been a thousand years. And though they've been forbidding the use of machina among the people of Spira all this time, they've kept you as the ace up their sleeve." He snorted with contempt for Yevon's temples, then and now. "They're afraid to use you, but they're just as afraid to destroy you. I've done my research this time, though. I know what makes you tick now. And unlike them, I have nothing to fear. I have nothing left to lose. We've both been imprisoned for a millennium, but we can still stop Bevelle. We can stop time itself. Let's end this impossible-to-win game, okay? Just you and me."

As he came near, however, the machina began to shake. It had not acted this way before when he commanded it. He walked to the doors of the gun barrel and waited for it to open to him. When it did not, he touched the keypad that had opened it before, but Vegnagun chose to override the command. Shuyin's gaze darkened. "You don't remember me."

"Hostility detected. Access denied," the machina answered.

Shuyin remembered reading in the stolen files that Vegnagun was programmed toward self-preservation, but sometimes it mistook allies for enemies. "I don't want to hurt you. I'm here to help you do what you were meant to do."

"Meyven Nooj identified. Access denied." Vegnagun suddenly disengaged itself from its power source in that room.

Shuyin frowned with disgust. "Did Baralai actually program it against me? That bastard." He supposed it was his own fault for prodding Nooj into raiding the Kilika temple and threatening to tear down others. Not ready to abandon his plan just yet, Shuyin looked down into the mysterious foggy depths beneath the machina's platform. He had no idea what was down there, and he could see no bottom, but he knew how to reprogram it based on what he studied in the stolen files. All he needed was a different body so he could get close to it and time to work without interference from guards or fiends. After a moment of undecided, anxious pacing, Shuyin went to the room's control panel and began flipping switches. The platform in the middle of the floor dropped away, and Vegnagun fell into the dark depths below. Shuyin knew it wouldn't crash because of its programming to protect itself. But with the security switches off, Baralai was bound to send guards after it. Drawing a breath and reassuring himself that Plan B would work, Shuyin hopped into the darkness to pursue the machina he freed.

Down the confusing halls he raced, down the gaping hole in the now-empty chamber of the Fayth, Shuyin ran until he came to a flower-filled glen with mystical looking waterfalls. Vegnagun was nowhere in sight. The powerful magic that surrounded him in this place called him to rest, but Nooj's living body anchored him to reality and resisted the pull that otherwise would have drawn him into the mists forever. So, this was the Farplane.

As he looked around in awe, Shuyin acknowledged this was one place he had not yet searched for Lenne. But if what Bahamut and Kaila had suggested was true, he would willingly give up his ghost right here. "Lenne?" he called, scanning the border waterfalls and meadow for some sign of her. "Lenne!" In a moment of hope, he turned a full circle and waited.

))((

_ "It's him!" _Kaila's spirit rose from the moon lilies and soared around Nooj's body. _"It doesn't look like him, but it's him! Who else would be here looking for Lenne here? Bahamut, your magic is stronger than mine. Summon enough pyreflies to speak to him."_

Bahamut awakened with Shuyin's shouts, too, but it was Kaila's perception of the situation that prompted the boy's soul to inspect Nooj's face.

Shuyin anxiously watched the pyreflies swirling and gathering near Nooj's body. "Lenne?"

The boy's soul was skeptical, but he decided they had nothing to lose in speaking with this half-machina stranger. Bahamut materialized but hesitated to speak until he was certain he knew the spirit within.

Shuyin drew a breath of surprise. He seemed disappointed initially. Then, he seemed glad to see the boy. But after that brief moment of recognition, his gaze darkened, and he spoke in his own voice. "Bahamut."

"Shuyin," Bahamut returned the greeting. It was awkward, knowing he had possessed another person, and that person looked nothing like him. "Please say that you've come home."

"If I leave this body, I'll be confined to this place, won't I?" Shuyin guessed.

"The spirits of the Farplane must remain here," Bahamut confirmed. "They can wander only within the plane of magic, though that does stretch to other places on Spira—places where pyreflies are plentiful, such as Zanarkand, the Moonflow, Guadosalam ... The Farplane is peaceful but not confining," Bahamut assured him. "You can rest and not have to think or need anything."

"I need Lenne." Shuyin's composure cracked, and his former compassion revealed itself for a moment. "Is she here? Do you know where she is?"

Bahamut knew whatever he answered was crucial, but he could not bring himself to lie. "No."

It hurt to hear that, but Shuyin accepted it since he had denied it all along. "Then, this living body is more useful to me than a long rest."

"People aren't meant to live forever, Shuyin. When people go on and on, the burdens get to be too much."

"I don't intend to live forever. I intend to destroy Spira. It's the only way this world will ever truly know peace."

Bahamut became alarmed. "What? You can't still feel that way. You're ... you're thinking just like Maester Seymour, and ... Lady Yunalesca, and ... Yu Yevon, and ... Destruction is not the answer! We fought so hard to break the cycle, Shuyin! It took us a thousand years!"

"It's my understanding that Seymour intended to create a world of unsent spirits. I intend to make everything fade. No more senseless fighting. No more unsent spirits. No more Farplane. Just infinite nothingness." Nooj smiled at him—a smile that looked more like Shuyin's than his own.

Bahamut's brows rose. "Are you going to try to use Vegnagun again?"

"Where is it? I know it's down here somewhere."

The boy defiantly crossed his small arms over his chest.

"Where is it, Bahamut?" Shuyin demanded, snatching at the kid's hooded collar. But Nooj's material hands passed through the small ghost.

"Goodbye, Shuyin. Come home when you are ready to let go." Saddened, Bahamut's apparition began to fade.

"I'm not done with you yet!" Shuyin dared to cast his magic on the boy's spirit. And to his surprise, it worked!

Wild flashes of Shuyin's despair and painful memories spun in Bahamut's mind. And as the boy tried to shield himself, he wondered if this was how Jecht felt when Yevon possessed him.

Someone else was coming into the Farplane—first one person, running, then several more. Shuyin heard their voices beyond the misty veil above. Listening carefully, he recognized the voices of the Gullwings. "Damn it! I knew the High Summoner might come looking for Vegnagun, too! Well, let's give Miss Yuna a run for her money, shall we? Remember when you came to the cavern to taunt me with freedom and trick me into resting? Remember that, Bahamut? I haven't forgotten. You'll do what _I_ say now. Keep her away from Vegnagun!"

Bahamut panicked and tried harder to muster a spell that might lock Shuyin out, but his soul was suddenly and involuntarily wrenched from the Farplane and pushed through a summoning portal. _Impossible!_ Shuyin was not a summoner! But Bahamut _did_ remember their last encounter in the cavern. The boy's headache grew more intense, and despite his attempt to further understand Shuyin's rare arcane powers, his thoughts were pulled back to the blitzball player's horrible flashbacks. Forced into his black dragon form and thrust into reality, Bahamut had no choice but to rise out of the Farplane's pit and spread his wings above Yuna and her friends in an ominous warning not to enter.

"No way ..." Rikku couldn't believe her eyes. The Gullwings had just arrived in Bevelle to look for Vegnagun. They had confronted Baralai in a short scuffle, but he had disappeared ahead of them.

Paine had never seen anything like it. "What is it?"

"It's an aeon!" Rikku whimpered, freaked out by both its strange appearance and the fact that it looked like it wanted to fight.

Bahamut's eyes glowed with the red fire of hate, and his body burned with the black energy of revenge, but he tried desperately to communicate with his former summoner. _"Yuna! Go away! I don't want to fight you!"_ However, his words became a deafening roar.

"An aeon?" Yuna's eyes widened in disbelief at Bahamut's return and his hostility toward them. She raised her arms to bar her friends from attacking … and bar him from attacking them. "You must stop!" she begged, hoping the aeon would recognize her.

Paine shoved Yuna back and readied her sword. "You wanna get killed? We have no choice!"

Bahamut pleaded with her one more time to run but was then compelled to attack.

))((

Behind them, down in the Farplane, Shuyin turned his attention to another person coming through the mists.

"You have no right to be down here!" Baralai's normally soft-spoken voice barked in anger. "Get out now!"

Shuyin receded to let the Youth League meyvn answer for himself. Nooj looked around in confusion. "Baralai? What is this place?"

Baralai softened his tone but held to his warning. "You've crossed the threshold into the Farplane. No one should be here disturbing the dead. Let them rest in peace."

Nooj panicked a little, knowing he couldn't account for his decisions. "Look, something strange has been happening to me. I think I should meet with you and Gippal somewhere else to talk about it. There's something about this place ... I can't think straight."

"Then leave." Baralai lowered his double-ringed staff and pointed its bladed end toward his former friend.

Shuyin took over before Nooj could confess to hearing voices in his head. "I will leave when it's safe to leave." He lifted his eyes to indicate the battle going on above them.

Baralai's eyes followed his glance up, but then a machina fist crunched into his gut, knocked the wind out of him, and bowled him over.

Shuyin crouched over the unconscious young man and studied his features. Vegnagun had recognized Nooj's face and forbid him access. Vegnagun would recognize Baralai as the praetor. The machina weapon would probably cooperate with the praetor better than anyone else. Shuyin knew what the next step in his plan had to be, but first, he had to get Yuna off his back. Her persistence was beginning to annoy him.

Disappearing behind the mists, Shuyin walked the pathways within the plane of magic that Bahamut mentioned. This time, he summoned every one of Yuna's former aeons, stationing them in their former temples and along this path. Under his control, if the aeons couldn't stop her, they would at least attract numerous fiends to attack the villages. Yuna would volunteer to defend helpless people, keeping her distracted long enough for him to return to Vegnagun.

))((

"Shuyin! How could you!" Kaila fussed as he walked away. "What's happened to you?" Bahamut was right. Their unsent friend had turned into a monster.

She looked up to the battle where Bahamut had been forced to attack Yuna and her friends, then she looked down at the praetor of New Yevon, helpless and unconscious at her feet. If only she knew how to use magic other than illusion so she could help someone. But outside of the dream, she was no longer able to cast spells as a Fayth. She was just Kaila once more.

"Wake up!" she called out to Baralai. "Wake up and get out of here! Your life is in danger!" When he didn't respond, she tried to grab his overcoat and shake him. But her immaterial substance met no resistance. If talking to him and shaking him didn't work, what else could she do?

))((

Baralai's eyes opened with a start after he was pounced in the face by a bright swarm of pyreflies. Sitting up, he backed away from the pyreflies and clutched his ribs. Though he wondered where he was for a moment, it all came back to him, and his dark eyes narrowed with mistrust. "Nooj."

The praetor looked up at the battle going on above him. Nooj and Gippal? No. Female voices … The Gullwings. With so many possible thieves invading the temple's lower levels, he decided there was only one way to clean them out. Standing and limping toward the exit, Baralai decided to send the warrior monks on a dungeon sweep. He had to protect Vegnagun from Nooj … and anyone else who sought to get their grubby hands on it. But the security wards in the machina's chamber had been tripped, and it had escaped, so first, he had to find it.

))((

Since Yuna was wearing Lenne's dress sphere, Lenne was alert throughout the battle with the black dragon. Being a former summoner herself, she knew this creature was an aeon, even if she did not know its name. But she was astonished that it would attack the Gullwings like this, especially considering Yuna had been a summoner, too. _"Aeons don't attack out of spite_," Lenne tried to remind her. _"He must be guarding something. The machina you seek must be down there. You can come back for it later when he is banished."_

Yuna was thrown against the wall and shook her head to try to stay alert. The fight wasn't going so well. "Aeons don't attack out of spite!" she told her friends. "What's happened to him? Bahamut, please stop!"

A chill shocked Lenne's spirit. _"Bahamut?_" It couldn't be. Who would turn a little boy into a Fayth? Besides, she had left him in the safety of the Ronso caverns. But thanks to her unintended imprisonment and conversation with Maester Renuta, she soon began to suspect who had turned him and why. Her soul cried out in anguish. _"Bahamut, can you hear me? Yuna! Please don't hurt my brother! You have to let me talk to him!"_

Yuna looked down at her dress sphere grid. The gunner outfit wasn't working on this incredibly strong perversion of one of her favorite aeons. Maybe if … Perhaps … She switched to the singer sphere.

Lenne felt her sphere's magic activate and fold around Yuna until the High Summoner wore a fortified version of her own dress. _"Oh, Bahamut,"_ she cried. _"What did I let them do to you? I am so sorry! Rest! Please rest. This world's problems are not yours anymore." _In her lament, she tried to give Yuna a song. As the High Summoner sang, the black dragon slowed and stopped attacking to listen. The song's magic silenced his spells, but the words of the song stunned him into submission. Lenne knew why, even if no one else did. That song was one her brother always requested at her concerts.

As Yuna sang, the magic of the dress sphere lulled the dragon to sleep. Paine delivered the final offensive strike, and the tainted aeon vanished in a swirl of shimmering pyreflies. When the song ended, Rikku and Paine both looked to Yuna in mute surprise. The summoner wiped a tear from her eye.

"Well, you know what they say about music soothing the savage beast," Paine spoke.

"Where did you get that song?" Rikku asked, awed at its unusual effect on the aeon.

"I don't know. It just kind of came to me," Yuna answered. "I'm … so sorry," she apologized, hoping Bahamut heard her. Then, she changed back to her gunner outfit before falling to her knees and looking into the empty hole where Dark Bahamut had come from.

Lenne understood Yuna's confusion, fear, and frustration at seeing what had become of her aeon friend. She could offer no consolation or answers, but she could finally mourn the loss of her little brother.

))((

Back at the Youth League's headquarters, Shuyin allowed Nooj to contact Gippal and Baralai to arrange a meeting. Nooj intended to apologize and explain everything before speaking to them about Vegnagun. It couldn't remain under Bevelle in the hands of New Yevon. It needed to be destroyed.

"So, why are we here?" Gippal asked, as the three Crimson Squad survivors came together inside the chamber where Vegnagun used to be.

"There's something I needed to be sure of," Baralai spoke before Nooj could confess. "Vegnagun is gone."

"Listen to you," Nooj answered. "'Vegnagun is gone.' Are you trying to tell us that since that thing left on its own, Yevon's not to blame?"

"It's the truth," Baralai admitted. "The thing's more sensitive than its size would lead one to believe. It detects hostility, and in an instant, springs to life. Should one even think of harming it, it awakens like a frightened child."

"Hah. You did your homework," Nooj answered.

"I've had two years."

"Wait. So, you're saying that Vegnagun woke up because someone was trying to destroy it? Who?" Gippal began to aimlessly pace.

"Who indeed. I'm a little confused." Baralai looked to Nooj. "You came to claim it for yourself, didn't you? But Vegnagun awoke. Why? Because deep down, you hated it. Did you come here to use it or destroy it? Well?"

Nooj walked to the edge of the platform where Vegnagun once sat and looked over the edge into the pyrefly infested pit of darkness beneath them. He considered his answer carefully before sharing it. "Both. You probably think that's impossible. You've always been too naïve to see. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"Then, I hope you don't expect me to trust you, either." Baralai turned his back on Nooj and walked a few paces away from him. "I believed in you once, when we were training for the Crimson Squad. I thought I'd never find a better friend." Baralai closed his eyes, trying not to let emotion replace logic. "But you betrayed that ... two years ago." The praetor whipped out a gun and aimed it at Nooj.

"Baralai!" Gippal called him down for threat.

))((

Behind the doorway, the Gullwings eavesdropped on their conversation. Paine's hands clenched into fists, and she almost barged into the room to disarm Baralai herself, but Yuna, crouched near her legs, caught hold of her knee and shook her head. Putting a finger to her lips, she reminded Paine to remain hidden until they could find out what was going on. Paine's lips tightened in a thin line, but she stayed and turned her attention back to her friend's conversation.

"Why did you shoot?" Baralai demanded of Nooj. "Why did you shoot Gippal and me? We were friends, and you shot us in the back!"

Nooj was cold and silent as he met Baralai's gaze, though the gun was only inches from his face.

"Answer me!"

"Just calm down!" Gippal tried to prevent something horrible from happening again. "Nooj! Apologize already!" But Nooj wouldn't answer. "That's enough!" But Baralai wouldn't lower his gun. "Don't push me ..." Gippal warned, pulled out his own gun, and raised it to Baralai's forehead. "If this is what it takes …"

Again, Paine fought the urge to interrupt the argument before it turned bloody, but this time Rikku blocked her. "Wait, did you see that?" she whispered and pointed.

Nooj's body glowed as pyreflies began to pull away from him. Despite his machina leg, he stiffened and dropped his cane, no longer needing it. "This has turned out perfectly, wouldn't you agree? Yes, I shot you." Nooj pulled his gun and aimed it at Gippal. "You were easy targets—you and Paine."

Behind the doorway, Paine's eyes widened at the change that came over the half-machina man as he spoke. "That's not Nooj," she whispered to Yuna and Rikku. "Nooj wouldn't say something like that."

"You shot Paine, too?" Gippal couldn't believe it.

"Why?" Baralai needed answers.

Nooj laughed a slow, cynical laugh.

"Answer me!" Baralai demanded.

Nooj's body shimmered with magic again, and his voice changed. Another voice could be heard over his own. "I made him do it. He was too weak to resist me."

From the doorway, Yuna and Rikku gaped at each other. "There it goes again," Rikku whispered. "Did you see it?"

"Definitely not Nooj," Paine whispered, frowning at this disturbing situation.

"Nooj?" Gippal had noticed the shimmer and voice change, too.

"I don't expect you to present any more of a challenge. Not now." Nooj's body shimmered once more, and then the magic left his body to enter the praetor's. A gust of wind seemed to hit Baralai. He struggled to speak but seemed to be choking on something.

Behind the doorway, Rikku gasped but then quickly covered her mouth to avoid being heard.

Nooj fell to the floor, gasping for air as if breathing for the first time in a long time. Baralai stabilized, but then his body shimmered with magic, and pyreflies floated around him. After the exchange, the other voice continued to speak over Baralai's. "See, I found that the mind that hates and despairs is the easiest to break. Two years ago, it was the same with you, Nooj ... seeking your own death. Now you can have it." Baralai clicked the hammer on his revolver and prepared to fire.

"Wait!" Gippal tried to stop him.

Unable to stand this mania any longer, Paine bolted from the shadows toward them. "Stop!" Rikku and Yuna ran after her.

"Paine, get out of here!" Nooj warned, but it wasn't just their standoff that worried him.

Yuna turned to see that their noise had attracted the attention of a fiend. A huge Marlboro slid down the wall behind the girls, eager to feed.

))((

Shuyin had not expected the Gullwings to show up again in the dungeons beneath Bevelle. Surely Yuna had not defeated all of those dark aeons in the fiend-stricken villages yet … unless she had help. The High Summoner's persistence had definitely become annoying. But she was the least of his problems at the moment. Gippal's gun was poised to kill Shuyin's best chance at reprogramming Vegnagun, and the Marlboro's many tentacles were advancing quickly. Shuyin decided to use the fiend's appearance to escape.

Nooj and Gippal took off after him, leaving the Gullwings to deal with the monster.

As he ran, Shuyin searched Baralai's knowledge of the dungeons under Bevelle and used his sense of direction to lose the others in the labyrinth before ducking into Bahamut's Chamber of the Fayth and leaping down the hole into the Farplane once more. If it had only been that easy when he and Lenne were trying to escape.


	41. Chapter 41: Farplane

Chapter 41: Farplane

Yuna had not planned on jumping into the dark hole where Ixion's Fayth should have been. That kind of abyssal depth seemed to hold all the secrets in the world—secrets she wasn't meant to know. Then, an unexpected blast after the battle with the resurrected aeon threw her off-balance. And as she fell into the pyrefly-infested oblivion, she thought she heard Paine and Rikku call out to her, but she couldn't answer. It was so dark, but then ... so bright. Opening her eyes, she saw that she wasn't falling as much as floating. And her fear of whatever was at the bottom faded into feelings of comfort and peace. Had she … died?

As she fell, she thought she heard a voice—_his_ voice. She thought she answered. But when she looked around anxious to find him, he was nowhere to be seen. And when she opened her eyes, she was lying on a soft bed of flowers. Had she dreamed it? How was she wearing her singer sphere without having activated it? Slowly, she sat up, then stood to look around in wonder at the mystical place she suddenly found herself in. A gentle breeze touched her as pyreflies burst from her shimmering dress sphere and swirled around her in excitement. But she barely had time to question what was happening when she noticed a figure in the mist. Yuna's heart skipped a beat, and she held her breath as he approached, but she was afraid to get her hopes up before she was sure.

))((

Lenne watched the entire battle with Ixion, hoping Yuna would activate her dress sphere. Familiarity wouldn't help with this Fayth like it had with Bahamut, but she understood Yuna's confusion and sorrow in wondering what had corrupted multiple aeons. Afraid to stray beyond her singer sphere because of such corruption, Lenne's soul remained quiet while Yuna fought back. However, when Yuna fell into the hole, Lenne feared for the other summoner's life and reached beyond her dress sphere to summon a slow spell from the thick cloud of magical pyreflies surrounding them.

Yuna was unconscious, so Lenne overrode the sphere grid to her singer sphere and continued to gently lower the other summoner down into the bottom of the pit. The pit's base was not made of machina like the top, but she had never been further down into the colony ship than Bevelle's dungeons, so she didn't know what to expect at these depths. Lenne was surprised to land in a magical meadow, bordered by misty waterfalls and carpeted by moonflowers, overlooking a valley of more of the same. Pyreflies floated lazily above the flowers where Yuna's body came to rest, and Lenne fought an overwhelming urge to release the human and the dress sphere to sleep. Was this … the Farplane?

Lenne heard a voice—_his_ voice. She thought she answered. But when she looked around anxious to find him, he was nowhere to be seen. Was he really here somewhere? A gentle breeze passed through her, and her dress shimmered with more pyreflies as she, again, debated leaving the safety of her sphere. But she barely had time to question what was happening when she noticed a figure in the mist. Lenne's heart skipped a beat, and she held her breath as he approached, but she was afraid to let go of Yuna until she was sure.

))((

In Baralai's body, Shuyin had full access to all of the temple. But he used his new identity for one purpose only—finding Vegnagun. When he finally located it hiding in the Heart of the Farplane, the machina was still unreasonably skittish and paranoid about Nooj seeking to destroy it. Baralai would have been better at talking some sense into it, but because he had revealed himself to Baralai before his possession, he dare not let the praetor act on his own now. His iron will held control over Baralai's mind, compared to his occasional interferences with Nooj. So Shuyin had to win Vegnagun's trust on his own merits before he could get close to it again. This would be his third time trying to approach the thing.

But as he passed through the Farplane's Abyss toward the vortex into the Heart, he spotted an unconscious woman lying among the flowers and stopped behind the mist before he could be seen. "High Summoner Yuna?" What was she doing down here? His teeth clenched in anger, and he nearly marched forward to rid himself of her once and for all since she appeared to be alone. But he stopped when he noticed what she was wearing. _Lenne's_ dress? A small cluster of pyreflies hovered near her. Had Lenne found refuge in Yuna the same way he found shelter in Baralai?

Shuyin's breath and heartbeat quickened. Hope surged within him, but he didn't want to be disappointed and sent if he was wrong. Calming himself, he reached into the summoner's mind with his magic. _"Can you hear me?"_

_"Yes."_ Though Yuna was still lying unconscious among the flowers, the subconscious part of the mind was always open to dreams.

_"Ah, you can hear me." _Shuyin was pleased that his attempt to contact her without waking her worked.

_"I can't see you. Where are you?"_ she asked. It wasn't a complaint. It was a plea.

Was it because Yuna was searching for someone who looked like him? Or was it because Lenne was searching for him? That dress … Shuyin decided Lenne _had_ to be with her somehow and felt it was worth the risk to reveal his presence. But since Yuna was present, he remained cautious. He had to do this in a way that would allow him to stay safe within Baralai's body but let Lenne see his true form. _"Right here,"_ he assured her as Baralai approached her unconscious body and crouched at her side. Lifting her gently into his arms, Shuyin cast another spell—one that projected a dream image of this place and an illusion of his own appearance into her subconscious.

In Yuna's dream, as she stood to look for him, he took note of the burst of pyreflies that came from that dress. He had waited so patiently for Lenne. He couldn't believe he may have finally found her. Shuyin left the mists and crossed the bed of flowers toward her. Stopping a short distance apart, he allowed himself to smile. "_We've finally met, haven't we?_" His brows came together with a hint of worry, afraid this encounter wasn't real. (1)

Yuna looked uncertain as well. "_Is it ... really you?_"

He could tell she was teetering on the edge of hope like himself. "_It's me. Shuyin,_" he confirmed. "_I've always been waiting for you … Lenne._"

Hope crashed. Confused and insulted, Yuna promptly turned her back to him. "_I'm not Lenne_."

Shuyin's brows rose with uncertainty again. Maybe Lenne wasn't answering because she was angry. "_Ne, Lenne ... Even though we disappeared together, as a couple, I woke alone. Alone, I searched for you._" He strode toward her with a slow, steady pace. "_But in wandering, I've realized ... Spira, the cycle ... it hasn't changed._" His eyes shifted toward the world above. "_Same as ever, they die quarreling over insignificant things. After more than a thousand years, they don't trust. They're still hateful. Therefore, they punished each other—did a cleansing. Also, this good-for-nothing Spira didn't take you seriously—me, either._ _With Vegnagun, I'll get rid of all that and make it disappear."_ He clenched his fists but kept his anger in check. _"Then, once more, as a couple, we can fade._" Standing directly behind her now, he stopped. "_Lend me your strength ... Lenne._" He smiled with hope once more and touched her shoulder.

_What a disaster! _Yuna's thoughts seeped into the dream as if she was transparent.

Shuyin struggled to control his emotions. He didn't care what Yuna thought. Determined to reach Lenne, he surprised Yuna by turning her around and pulling her into his arms against his chest. Yuna couldn't bring herself to return the gesture, but as soon as he embraced her, Shuyin could feel the pyreflies burst from her dress again. He could feel Lenne's presence trying to reach out to him.

Unable to distinguish Lenne's feelings from her own, Yuna was now even more confused. _What's come over me?_

Holding Lenne for the first time in a thousand years, Shuyin was ashamed for her to see the depths of despair he had fallen into during his isolation but hopeful he would be forgiven for his failures. After a moment, he pulled away and looked into her eyes, hoping to see someone familiar, but it was still only Yuna, mirroring his desire to see someone else.

_Hey … whose feelings are these?_ She let him draw her back into his arms. _Lenne?_ That name again … Feeling oddly comforted by his presence, Yuna closed her eyes and let her forehead rest against his cheek.

With a sigh, Shuyin closed his eyes and tried to enjoy the moment while it lasted, but he wondered why Lenne refused to let go of Yuna to be with him. The despair that infected him for centuries still gnawed at what was left of his soul. Maybe Lenne had not come to see him. Perhaps she had come with Yuna to stop him, just like everyone else. Maybe the one hope that kept him going for a thousand years had been for nothing. Shuyin was devastated, but he refused to let it show.

Someone shouted for Yuna to open her eyes.

Shuyin reluctantly released her and allowed his illusion to revert back to Baralai's form. Yuna dropped to her knees, limp and groggy as Lenne's dress sphere deactivated back to the gunner outfit. Shuyin felt numb, cold as he gazed down at the summoner then walked away from her.

Nooj and Gippal tried to wake the summoner from her dream.

"_The end is not far now,"_ Shuyin told them, his own voice layered over Baralai's. Then, he summoned a portal through the dream and the Farplane and left them to return to Vegnagun once more.

))((

When Yuna woke, Gippal's and Nooj's spheres for Paine were beside her. They had followed Shuyin through the vortex, so now she was alone. And the beautiful Farplane meadow from her dream was once more a cold, dark, and barren pit. Yuna was at a loss for understanding what happened. How had Tidus turned into Shuyin? Why had Shuyin turned into Baralai? What were Gippal and Nooj doing down here? And _who the heck was Lenne_? Frustrated, angry, and scared, Yuna ran aimlessly across the dark plane. And when seeking a way out failed, she broke down and yelled at the top of her lungs for help. She didn't notice the handful of pyreflies that hovered near lighting her path, refusing to leave her side.

))((

Lord Braska's rest had been disturbed the moment his daughter entered the Farplane. Oh, how she had grown since he last saw her! He observed the whole ordeal without interfering, but none of the three humans that paused to help had actually helped her. Now she was trapped alone in the Farplane with no easy way out.

He noticed the pyreflies hovering near, even if she did not. So, the high summoner decided to help his daughter in a way that he hoped would also cheer her a little. And he summoned those pyreflies into a slightly more cohesive, ghost-like form. "_Lead her away from this place_," he instructed his creation_. "The chambers of the Fayth are quite dangerous right now with the dark aeons lying in wait, but I know that you will keep her safe, and … she needs you."_

The barely-there spirit didn't need to be told twice. Heading in the direction that he wanted her to go, the loose collection of memories released one for her—a whistle.

Surprised, Yuna lifted her chin and stood. There was no mistaking that sound. "Where are you?"

The thin ghost whistled again, waited to be seen, then led the way toward the safest exit.

"Wait!" Yuna ran after him.

Her father smiled. _"Go in peace, my dear. Today is not your time to join us."_

))((

When Yuna reached the top of the stairway of pyreflies, she woke to find herself in the chamber that once housed Vegnagun. When the crew of the Gullwings was finally able to contact her via com sphere, she was teleported back to the airship. They had all been worried, of course. Yuna did her best to explain the strange experience, though she was still unsure whether parts of it were real.

Pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place now, though. Shinra informed her that Lenne was the name of the girl in the dress sphere. Since Shuyin thought Yuna was Lenne, they suspected it was because of the dress sphere. And though she was terribly disappointed, Yuna now realized the young man she had been hunting in those ancient spheres was Shuyin, not Tidus.

Later, when she went looking for Paine to pass along the memory spheres Gippal and Nooj had given her, Rikku stopped her in the hall. "Yunie! Yunie!"

"Yeah?"

"You met Shuyin, right? Was he anything like you-know-who?" Rikku asked with a grin.

Yuna did feel much like talking about it beyond what she'd already told them. She didn't want to linger on how comforting it felt to be near him or how confusing it was to look into his eyes but see someone else. She missed Tidus so much, she had been willing to pretend Shuyin was him for just a few minutes. And she didn't want to admit how much it hurt when he said he'd _always_ been waiting for her but then called her by another name. _Always …_ That had been Tidus's promise. How could Shuyin be so much like him, yet be nothing like him at all? Yuna shook her head to answer the younger girl's question about whether Shuyin was anything like Tidus. "Not really. Just his face." Stepping into the lift, Yuna closed the doors and touched the button for the top deck.

))((

Secluded and sulking in her dress sphere, Lenne's spirit had listened to the Gullwings theorize about the connection between her dress sphere and Shuyin, but her thoughts were far away. She wondered if she did the right thing, not letting go of Yuna. She could have talked to him. But letting go would have locked Lenne into the Farplane, and she couldn't help him if she was trapped there.

She had been so happy to see Shuyin again—to hear his voice, see his smile, and be close once more. But it hurt so much to see what he had become. All those unsent years had poisoned his heart with bitterness. Now all he wanted was revenge, just like any other fiend.

She wished she could have told him why she didn't want to fade. She did want to be with him again, but not like this. This disillusioned soul wasn't _her_ Shuyin. His compassion and hope had been replaced by despair and magic strong enough to conjure dreams and possess minds. It was hard to admit, but Shuyin was dangerous now. Someone had to stop him. And she feared for the Gullwings if that task fell to them. She needed to stay close. If Yuna knew the whole story, maybe she could protect Spira from Vegnagun while also protecting Shuyin from himself.

Lenne chose Yuna's concert in the Thunder Plains to try to communicate with her again. Since Yuna activated Lenne's dress sphere for the show, Lenne decided to give her another song. As she sang with Yuna, the dress sphere reacted with the com spheres on the airship and the electricity in the sky, revealing Lenne's memories of her final moments with Shuyin to everyone in attendance. Yuna was heartbroken for them by the time the song ended, but now she understood her earlier nightmare. And after the concert, an old man named Maechen, whom Lenne remembered meeting at one of her own shows, stopped by the airship to share a few more details of their tragic story against the backdrop of the Machina War. Then, realizing he, too, was unsent, he voluntarily departed for the Farplane.

"I think I can kinda understand how he felt, trying so hard to save someone," Rikku admitted after Maechen left. "Two years ago, I was the same, trying to find some way ... some way to save you," she told Yuna.

"That was enough, knowing that you were on my side. I'll always be grateful to you."

"Maybe Lenne felt the same way," Paine suggested. "The man she loved … he struggled to save her. He fought till his very last breath for her. I think that Lenne's final words might have been happy ones: 'I love you.'"

"Yes," Yuna agreed. "There is a connection. But wait. Everything is all wrong. He never heard. The one person she wanted to tell ... He never heard her words."

Inside her dress sphere, Lenne sighed with relief. The Gullwings finally understood. Now, they just had to figure out what to do about it.

))((

"Well?" Brother asked as he followed Rikku, Paine, and Yuna into the cabin.

"Well?" Paine repeated, unenthusiastic about answering his interrogation.

"What did you find in the Den of Woe?" he persisted.

"Mish Yoona. Mish Rikkoo, Mish Paine ..." The blue, frog-like hypello behind the bar greeted them from behind the counter. "Yoo look too tired. Would yoo like shomething to eat?"

"Ice cream, please." Rikku sat down at the counter. "_Lots_ of it."

"Uh-oh." Buddy sat down next to her. "It was an ice cream experience, huh?"

"And how." Rikku groaned in exhaustion, dropping her forehead on the counter.

"Chocolate has mood-enhancing chemicals in it," Shinra told Barkeep as he climbed on the stool next to Buddy. "I think they need some chocolate."

Yuna gave the boy a wan smile for his thinly disguised ploy to get his favorite flavor. "Chocolate's fine," she told the hypello as she sat down with her crewmates for a rare break in their hectic travels. As she waited for her ice cream to be served, Yuna looked to Paine, who sat in silent contemplation of a napkin.

"So, what _happened_?" Brother asked again, sounding like he was going to pop an artery.

Paine didn't look like she was in the mood to talk, so Yuna explained it to the rest of the crew for her. "The sphere collection unlocked the door, just as we suspected. The cavern was completely empty, though. There was no Vegnagun, and someone had cleaned up the bodies to hide the evidence of what happened there. The only thing left was a lot of pyreflies and Shuyin's memories. We saw … everything."

"Shuyin's memories of his attempt to control Vegnagun possessed Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai," Paine spoke, trying to sound objective, despite how hard it had been to witness. "The despair was so heavy they tried to kill each other. That's what happened to the whole Crimson Squad. That's why Kinoc tried to execute survivors. They saw a machina they weren't supposed to see."

"How do you know they weren't trying to kill Shuyin?" Buddy asked.

"Because those memories tried to possess us, too, making us fight each other."

The hypello returned with some large bowls of ice cream and spoons, then set his chin in his frog-fingered hand to listen to their conversation.

Brother leaned on the counter and lowered his voice to Yuna. "Did you get to beat up Rikku?"

Rikku's mouth was already too full of ice cream to say anything back, but she frowned at her sibling, reached for one of his suspenders, and snapped it against his back, making him yelp.

"Wait a minute," Buddy interrupted. "What was Shuyin doing in a remote cave? I thought you said he was in the Farplane."

Yuna dug halfheartedly at her ice cream before scooping a bite and then sucking it off of her spoon. "I think it was just his feelings and memories well-preserved in the pyreflies, like what we experienced in Zanarkand, only more intense. He said the pyreflies made him live those memories repeatedly, and he thought I was Lenne again, but his responses were rather … shallow. You know? He didn't interact like a real person. He was pure fiend. The Shuyin in the Farplane felt much more sincere."

"Do you think maybe that's where he was buried?"

Yuna shook her head. "Perhaps in the sense that his spirit was locked away in the cavern for so long. But according to the spheres and their memories, Shuyin died in Bevelle. I can't imagine why they would bury him so far away, under such high security, and in a different place from Lenne. I mean, she's here with us—with me, in my dress sphere. I think they're buried closer to Bevelle, but somehow they got separated. I don't think Shuyin was locked in that cavern until after he was unsent. The lock on that door isn't something you'd find on an ordinary tomb, and he's no ordinary spirit. But he must have been in there for a very long time to leave such tangible memories in the pyreflies. I can't imagine what he endured."

Buddy wanted to make sure he understood. "So, the Shuyin in the den was just an illusion, while the real one is going for Vegnagun?"

"If that had been the real Shuyin in the cavern, he wouldn't have been released until we opened the door." Paine poked at her ice cream, not eating it. "The real Shuyin must have escaped two years ago by possessing Nooj during the Crimson Squad trial. That would explain why Nooj shot us. Shuyin made him do it."

"But earlier when we were under Bevelle, a strange burst of pyreflies whooshed from Nooj into Baralai," Rikku spoke over her mouthful. "That would explain why Yunie saw Baralai as Shuyin in the Farplane!" The small thief winced and squeezed her head between her palms. "Ugh. Brain freeze."

"We talked about this outside of the cavern, but we think Shuyin has possessed Baralai to gain easier access to Vegnagun," Paine explained to the rest of the crew. "We have to stop him."

Yuna ate some more of her ice cream, but Paine's tone troubled her. "What about Baralai?"

The warrior woman looked at the summoner, torn. "If you can think of a way to destroy Shuyin without harming Baralai, I'm all ears."

Yuna made a drinking gesture to Barkeep, requesting water, then put her palms together with a small bow of thanks when he went to get it. "Well, um …"

Rikku scooped the last serving of ice cream from her bowl. "You know, Shuyin sounds kinda romantically demented. If he thinks you're Lenne, maybe you could lure him out of Baralai by pretending to be her."

Paine cut the thief a side glance. "'Romantically demented?'" Unable to enjoy her ice cream, she pushed her bowl toward Shinra, who had been staring at her uneaten portion. The whiz kid eagerly removed his face mask and goggles to devour the offer.

Yuna wasn't sure what she thought of Rikku's plan. "Well, he did hug me in the Farplane," she admitted. "But you should have seen the look in his eyes. It would be cruel to trick him like that, don't you think?"

"After everything he's done?" Paine couldn't believe Yuna was defending him. "I can sympathize with Lenne, but I can't _ever_ forgive Shuyin. He _used_ us. He tried to _kill_ us. He killed all those people during the training exercises, too. And now he's threatening to obliterate all of Spira. In spite of how he looks, he's not your boyfriend, Yuna. He's a fiend—a powerful, dangerous, ancient, _unsent fiend_." Upset, Paine stood and walked away.

Hearing the bathroom door shut, Yuna understood her friend's anger, but she wasn't sure seeking revenge against Shuyin was the solution. Shuyin had lasted a thousand years feeding on revenge in people like Nooj and Baralai. At this rate, he could just as easily take Paine next. Perhaps Yuna's feelings for Tidus were muddling her thoughts, but she knew Lenne had shown her those visions in hopes that they could find a way to save Shuyin, not destroy him.

"Yunie, do you think there's still a chance Shuyin is connected to Tidus in some way?"

With a defeated sigh, Yuna quieted and cut semi-circles with her spoon in the melting mound of chocolate left in her bowl. "I don't think so, Rikku. If there is a connection, I certainly don't get it."

"But they're both from the same place and time. And they look so much alike. Maybe they're distant relatives, or even brothers," Rikku suggested.

"Tidus never mentioned having a brother."

"Well, maybe Tidus just didn't like him. I don't like my brother, so I wouldn't mention him to anyone if I didn't have to."

Brother's brows furrowed, and a snarl came from his throat. "Tidus is a nothing. You should not be concerned about Tidus. He is gone. Shuyin is putting Spira in danger."

Rikku sat up straight and smacked the back of her brother's head. "Don't you talk like that about him around Yunie!"

"Rikku, it's okay. Brother's right." Sad, but trying to be reasonable, Yuna pushed her half-empty bowl away and took a drink from Barkeep's offered glass of water to wash away the sweetness of the dessert. "Tidus came from the Fayth's dream. He will never be found in any spheres we dig up in the real world because he wasn't real. We should just help Nooj and Gippal free Baralai."

Setting down the glass, Yuna went upstairs and lay down on her bed to rest for a few minutes before trying to find the Farplane again. If she could talk to Shuyin, instead of fighting him, what would she say? If she were in Lenne's place, what would she say? Yuna pulled out her dress sphere grid and stared at it. "I know you must miss him terribly. I know how that feels. We will do what we can to bring him home to you. I promise."

Thinking of the thin assembly of pyreflies that led her out of the Farplane, Yuna regretted not being able to speak to that ghost the way she had been able to speak with Shuyin. Maybe when all of this was over, she should try looking for Tidus there. Setting her dress sphere on her bed, she knelt at her dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. She started to reach for the sphere within the keepsake chest. Then, she changed her mind and slowly closed the drawer. She could not be thinking of Tidus while confronting Shuyin, or she would never be able to send him. Or maybe it was just time that she stopped living in the past. Standing, Yuna picked up her grid again and went back downstairs.

))((

Inside the Heart of the Farplane, Shuyin scanned the machina and circuitry workings in the dome, walls, and pathways of the colony ship. He had to give Spira reluctant credit for continuing to stay afloat in space after all this time, but his admiration of the ship's age wasn't enough to make up for her inhabitants' multitudes of sins. And now, Yuna had poisoned Lenne against him. There was only one thing left to do—end existence itself.

As he approached the top of the multi-level platform in the center of the Heart, Shuyin lifted his gaze to the intelligent weapon perched above him. He had been talking to it often, winning its confidence over little by little, and though it usually flew away when he came this close, this time, it remained. Pausing before its large, skull-like head, Shuyin ran an appreciative hand over one of the long tusks. The machina did not pull back from his touch. It was willing to trust him as Baralai now.

Shuyin approached the locked doors of the gun barrel entrance once more and touched the panel near the doors. To his surprise, they opened. Pleased with finally making progress on this endeavor, he ducked under the gun barrel to climb the ladder to the control center on top of the construction's head. He had visited this control panel only twice, but because he had been forced to relive dying in front of the weapon thousands of times, he felt as if he knew it by heart. Running a hand gently over the keyboard, he smiled as it automatically lit at his touch. The weapon seemed to be able to read his mind once more. Pulling out the chair, Shuyin seated himself. "It's good to see you've finally calmed down."

"Calm. No hostility detected. Defense mode on stand down," the almost human, yet somewhat tin-quality voice spoke from the control panel.

"That's right because I'm not here to hurt you, Vegnagun. I need your help. See, I get it now. Peaceful people just want to live in peace … on a little island with beach-front homes and pet monkeys. That's all Lenne and I wanted." He smiled at the sad memory. "But sometimes, even peaceful people have to choose between killing or being killed if there is to be peace."

"Praetor Baralai?"

Shuyin blinked at the unexpected address but continued the charade. "Yes?"

"Accessing archived files. Directive Prisoner Lenne was marked for protection but terminated. Please indicate whether this is the _same_ directive, or you would like to start a _new_ one."

Shuyin paused, stunned. It remembered! The machina remembered Lenne from all those years ago? Maybe he was going about this all wrong, disguising himself as Nooj and Baralai. Closing his eyes, he summoned pyreflies into an apparition resembling his true form over Baralai's body—thin, so that Baralai could still be seen underneath, just in case. "Prisoner Lenne doesn't want to be protected anymore, Vegnagun. She's with High Summoner Yuna now, who is trying to stop me from bringing the only true Calm Spira will ever know." He could hear and see the computer's cameras twitching and scanning him.

"Operator identification updated. Prisoner Shuyin confirmed but was also terminated. Is there an error?"

Shuyin snorted at the machina's assessment of his execution. "A big error, Vegnagun. Lenne and I never should have been terminated. We never even should have been in that war."

"You continue to function outside of biological termination?"

Spirits were obviously not part of the war machina's programming, yet its AI seemed to be seeking reason. "Depends on what you mean by function," Shuyin honestly answered. "I'm cold now, empty, endless."

"Cold. Regulation of temperature is functionally operational. To increase or decrease and state numerical value."

He smiled at the machina's inability to translate subtlety of meaning. "Cold as in unplugged. Sort of like what the temple did to you. We were both locked away for a thousand years, forgotten. How did that make you feel? Did you like that?"

The machina was searching data for these words _like_ and _feel_. "I do not have sensory nerves. I have sensors that detect targeted objects, motion, light, and hazards."

"Didn't being locked away and unplugged make you angry?"

"No present hostility detected."

"No, I mean … What did you think about or do all that time?"

"Nothing. All systems off-line with defense mode on stand by for immediate hazards." Vegnagun paused, processing. "I was forgotten. Empty."

Shuyin felt better knowing _something_ understood him, even if it was a machine. With a sigh, he shook his head and continued. "Reinstate my former program, please. But this time, the target is the Heart of the Farplane. You're going to fire your cannon into those lights overhead." He looked up at the shimmering waves of magical color that danced across the Farplane's canopy.

"Warning: destroying the Farplane will destroy the ship. Destroying the ship will destroy Vegnagun."

Shuyin knew that if the machina felt it was in danger, he could have just jeopardized the entire plan. "No. When everything disappears, Vegnagun will have peace. No one will ever unplug Vegnagun again." Then, Shuyin leaned forward to the camera focused on him, and his eyes narrowed. "High Summoner Yuna is probably on her way. She's the one who wants to destroy you. She and her friends will stop at nothing to prevent us from bringing peace to Spira."

There was a moment of silence while the machina analyzed this information. Then, the command screens lit up. "Former program reinstated. Farplane target locked. Commencing initial engagement of cannon. Please confirm by copying the code sequence in music notation format."

Shuyin sighed with relief and placed his hands—Baralai's hands—over the keyboard. Then, he began to play.

))((

Yuna returned to the treacherous, winding paths of the outer Farplane beneath the Fayth's tombs, but this time Rikku and Paine accompanied her. As they fought their way past more tainted aeons and fiends heading toward the Abyss, Yuna realized this must have been the same path that she blindly ran through following the whistling spirit. And she marveled at how it managed to avoid running her into any broken pathways or incredibly strong fiends along the way. If that really had been Tidus, then he could still be here, still watching over her. Maybe she could learn to be happy with that.

After making it through the musically secured gates going up a steep, circuited pathway, the Gullwings found Gippal sitting to the side of a stone-melded node that led further up. He was heavily injured and admitted to being careless in an earlier confrontation. LeBlanc and her two henchmen, who had been waiting in the Farplane for Nooj, came behind them. The Gullwings continued, scaling the Melody Rocks until they arrived at another circuited path that led into a fortified, split sphere. Inside the sphere, above many suspended, petrified platforms, Vegnagun could be seen. The machina spotted her and trembled.

Nooj was already standing at the platform's base in front of Vegnagun when the Gullwings caught up. He had been trying to figure out a way to spare Baralai. His plan? He was going to shoot Baralai, only wounding him, not killing him. Then Nooj, whose body was already rigged with explosives, would allow Shuyin to possess him once more and trip the trigger.

Yuna frowned. "I don't like your plan. It sucks."

Everyone turned to face her as if that was the harshest language she had ever used in her life.

She realized it probably was, but then she tried to explain why she couldn't accept this. It was no different from what they had done to battle Sin. She had lost her aeons. She had lost Tidus. All for the sake of those magic words: _we had no choice_. She refused to repeat that regret. "I don't want friends to die … or fade away. I don't want battles where we have to lose in order to win." This was hard to say, but she remembered how Tidus kept telling her to believe in him when facing her own sacrifice. Now she knew what to do. "Nooj, I know that what you say is what you mean to do. Give me your resolve. Believe in Yuna."

"So you have a plan?" he asked, waiting for someone to suggest something better.

As Gippal, LeBlanc, and her goons joined them, Yuna reminded everyone that Vegnagun was just a machine. If they all worked together, they could disassemble it. The machina's terrible blue eyes glowed brightly as it trembled again.

"What about Shuyin?" Nooj asked.

"Plan B!" Yuna was resolved.

"Oh?"

"Love," she answered with a smile.

Gippal mumbled something skeptical in his native Al Bhed tongue, and Nooj shook his head with a mumble of his own.

"It'll work," she told them. "I've come this far to bring Lenne's feelings to Shuyin. I'm not stopping now." She was about to explain to Rikku how her plan would not trick him, but honestly tell him how Lenne felt being without him. But the ground began to shake and rumble as Vegnagun disengaged from its perch, roared in warning, and began powering its main cannon. They couldn't see Shuyin up at the top, but they could hear the command notes he was giving. Yuna hoped they weren't too late.

))((

Author's Note:

I have chosen to use Japanese game dialog, rather than English, in the scene between Yuna and Shuyin, so that is why it will look different from what most readers are used to. As always, I don't claim any credits for actual game dialog, but I should note this is my own loose translation, and translations can vary when trying to make them sound more presentable than literal.

This game scene really bugged me when I originally wrote about it. The scenery changes in the same place without explanation. Yuna is in and out of being awake more than once. Her costume changes by itself. Lenne never shows herself as anything more than pyreflies and never says anything to him, yet Shuyin never questions Yuna's presence. And I couldn't understand how Shuyin could be so laid back about finding someone he's been missing for a thousand years. I'm sure there are other possible answers, but I chose to try to make sense of it with Shuyin's ability to manipulate people's minds and using his pov as the primary angle on that scene. Hopefully, I didn't lose or confuse anyone there.

In the Japanese version, one phrase unlocked a possible answer for Shuyin's emotions for me—_zutto _means _always_ or _perpetually_. This is the same word Tidus frequently used to encourage Yuna. So, to me, "_Zutto matteita yo Len,_" feels very different from "I've waited so long, Lenne." I could imagine Yuna catching _zutto_ and bursting with joy, only to come crashing down to hear it followed by another girl's name. It also gives Shuyin an excuse for emotional restraint. If he's waited a long time, and his wait is over, he should be excited now. But if he was _always_ or _perpetually_ waiting, he may be cautious about getting his hopes up. _Matteita_ is also past progressive tense; it means _was waiting_ (past action continues into the present), not _waited_ (past action that is over). So, I used Japanese dialog (which is closer to "I always was/am still/have been waiting,") with Shuyin's thoughts to explain why he didn't rush into her arms and lift her off of her feet with a bear hug now that he's finally found her. Just my interpretation. Your mileage may vary. ^_^


	42. Chapter 42: Fade Away

Chapter 42: Fade Away

Bahamut had been keeping a distant, but diligent, eye on Shuyin's activity in the Farplane ever since he recovered from his dark aeon's banishment. He watched as the unsent spirit used the praetor's identity to cajole Vegnagun into a partnership. He hoped the machina's fear and intellect would reject him, but charismatic Shuyin played all the right notes to win its trust. The Fayth believed that Gippal and Nooj could reach Baralai despite the possession and send the unsent spirit, but the fiends within the vortex proved too much for them. Now Shyuin was powering the cannon of the most powerful weapon on Spira, and there seemed to be no way to stop him. _"Oh no … Oh no, oh no!"_

The boy's spirit flew to the meadow of moonflowers and swept low to dust pyreflies over as much of the area as he could. "Wake up! Wake up! Shuyin has activated Vegnagun! He's trying to destroy the Farplane, and if he succeeds, he'll destroy all of Spira with it! We have to find a way to stop him!"

All around the Farplane, spirits began to awaken. Dannae was among the first. "Shuyin would never do such a thing! He's a good boy! He's just … Jecht! Go talk to him! Tell him to come home and rest!"

"You know he won't listen to me," Jecht answered with equal concern.

"He might, if you try talking rather than yelling," Auron inserted as he appeared.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jecht countered. "Oh, I get it. A few minutes in a fake reality, and suddenly you're a better father than me?"

"I could never fill the void. But if you're going to go there …"

"What has passed is past," Braska gently but firmly reprimanded both of his former guardians. "Now is not the time for regrets or blame."

Kaila appeared by Bahamut's side. "We have to at least try talking to him."

"No way!" the boy protested. "You saw what happened the last time I tried talking. He turned me into a dark aeon." The other Fayth who had been victims of Shuyin's possessive magic looked at each other and nodded, as well.

Kaila remembered the harrowing confrontation, but it gave her an idea. "Lord Braska, could you summon one of the Fayth back as a good aeon? An aeon may be the only thing that can stop him."

"I don't think that's possible," Braska answered her.

"But … Shuyin did it, and he's not even a summoner."

"He made me attack Yuna," Bahamut admitted, lowering his gaze. "I never wanted to hurt her."

"I know." Braska placed a thin hand on the boy's shoulder, but he was more puzzled than angry. "Summoning spirits into reality involves being able to draw life from one world into another," he explained to Kaila. "Few humans can do it, even fewer spirits. It's not like summoning illusions within a dream or summoning a simple fire spell. To become a summoner, I had to endure many trials and gain the trust of the soul on the other side before it could be pulled back through the plane of magic. Had the Fayth not trusted me," Braska glanced to Bahamut with a small smile, "I would not have been able to force their obedience. Shuyin shouldn't have been able to do what he did unless it has something to do with the fact that, as an unsent, he exists in both the material and spirit realms at the same time. But if that was the case, other unsent souls would be able to do it, too."

Bahamut suddenly realized the answer to a question that had been plaguing him for centuries. "That's it. That's how he does it. Shuyin exists between realms, not like an unsent, but like Sin. There's a thick, dark energy inside of him … energy that I've only felt once before when I accidentally touched Sin while taking Jecht into reality. If Shuyin can manipulate people's minds and summon aeons just like Yevon, maybe when he became tainted by Sin's toxin, he absorbed Yevon's magic. That has to be what allows him to have such a firm grip on reality without completely turning into a fiend."

"Shuyin's tainted with Yevon's magic?" Kaila decided it made perfect sense, but it also meant something dreadful. "Does that mean Shuyin could turn into another Sin?"

"It looks like he's bent on self-destruction before that happens," Auron noted. "It also means that engaging him directly in any kind of lengthy battle to send him could have results just as catastrophic as allowing him to take out Spira with that machina. Perhaps the only defense against him one-on-one is Yevon himself."

Jecht frowned. "Don't you even think about turning Yevon loose on my boy. 'Cause I can tell you right now that ain't gonna happen."

Bahamut didn't like that idea any more than anyone else in the circle, but right now, Shuyin posed a bigger threat to Spira than Yevon. He was trying to think of an alternative solution when he spotted the Gullwings racing through the Farplane in pursuit of something, and he had an idea what that _something_ was. "Yuna!" he blurted.

Kaila's pyreflies swirled with worry. "Oh, no! She's going after Shuyin, isn't she? If he can cast Yevon's spells, she doesn't stand a chance without any aeons!"

"Wait, she's got Lenne's spirit." Bahamut blinked at the other spirits with renewed hope. "Lenne sang to me from Yuna's dress sphere."

Kaila practically read his mind. "She's going to ask Lenne to talk to him!"

"If anyone can convince Shuyin to come home, it's Lenne," he anxiously agreed.

Not wasting any more time talking about what they should do, Braska flew through the ethers of the Farplane toward his daughter and stayed close behind as she ran. Auron, Jecht, and Bahamut followed.

))((

Kaila almost joined them, but one look at Dannae's expression stopped her. All this talk about destroying an unsent fiend … This was her son they were talking about. At a loss for words, Kaila embraced Dannae with a sympathetic, reassuring hug. She could not erase the memory of Dannae's slow deterioration and self-destruction. But as Kaila once comforted her childhood friend in his time of need, she could also comfort his mom.

))((

The spirits following the Gullwings ran with them up the perilous path toward Vegnagun and hovered near Yuna as she and her friends debated the best way to approach the machina … and Shuyin. However, hearing her speak about the sorrow she felt after what happened two years ago was humbling. Though she could not hear them, each spirit apologized to her for their roles in following a path in which they thought they had no choice. But Tidus taught Yuna there was always a choice. So she was determined to find a solution that didn't sacrifice any more friends.

Unable to physically help and not wanting to distract her, Jecht, Braska, and Auron remained unseen. But they called out battle strategies for tackling Vegnagun and cheered her on. Yuna did not respond because she did not hear. All the same, Bahamut thought her actions seemed guided by the souls of her father and mentors.

))((

The Gullwings and their friends split up to attack Vegnagun from different angles simultaneously. As Yuna ran up the main path to break down the machina's primary functions, she recalled her fight against Yu Yevon and Sin without the Final Aeon. All she had then was the "Hymn of the Fayth," the inspiration of those who came before her, and the help of her friends. She still had that now. And if Yevon and Sin could be defeated, so could Vegnagun!

Responding to Shuyin's input in the command console and sensing the Gullwings' intentions to take it apart, Vegnagun amped up the charge building in its proboscis-like cannon. It used its enormous tail to cast offensive magic and sweep the high, floating platform on which they stood.

The blast forced Yuna to drop her guns and catch the cliff-like edge of the platform. A fall from that height into the rock formations below would have been deadly. But with determination, she got back on her feet, switched to her dark knight sphere, and drew Caladbolg, the prized sword Tidus left behind. Caladbolg could cut through almost anything.

Paine nodded in agreement with Yuna's no-nonsense choice and switched to her own dark knight sphere. Then both of them delivered unforgiving blows to the machina's armor and offensive nodes. At the same time, Rikku utilized her thief sphere's agility and speed to spring around it, slicing circuits in critical places. When the tail was finally taken down, they ran to help Leblanc, who was having trouble disabling its legs.

Leblanc and her bodyguards fled as the glowing red, green, and yellow orbs filled with glowing offensive magic. The explosion of spells that immediately followed the warning injured all three young women rather severely. Healing potions kept them going, but the attacks kept coming. No matter what they did to the orbs, they kept regenerating. As Rikku complained about the futility of their effort and Yuna shared more healing potions, Paine noticed one orb was casting magic on itself and the others instead of them. Growling through clenched teeth, the warrior changed into her black magic sphere and sent a blast of dark energy into the regenerative orb. With regeneration disabled, Rikku and Yuna came back into the fight, and all the other leg orbs were quickly rendered useless.

On the next platform up, on the spiraling column high above the entrance, they found Nooj, Gippal, and Leblanc attempting to take down the machina's enormous torso. They fired magic and heavy missiles at Vegnagun's head, but they were already badly injured and losing ground. Vegnagun's return fire and arms proved to be overwhelming. The Gullwings tried to help, but as soon as one of them scored a solid hit on one arm, another would brutally push back. Just like when they battled the legs, their efforts seemed futile until Rikku located the sensors and hit them with Darkness spells. As soon as she saw her strategy, Paine copied it. Then, Yuna used every ounce of strength she had to drive Caladbolg deep into the machina's chest. One arm regenerated to strike back, but Paine changed back into her warrior sphere and immediately took it out with one strategically placed thrust of her sword. It wasn't long before Rikku opened the rest of the machina's chest and stabbed or sliced through several primary function nodes and cables.

Vegnagun's torso erupted in several mini-explosions and fell, but its head landed hard on the platform where the girls stood. When the ground stopped quaking beneath the tremendous weight of the precariously balanced, disabled machina, their other friends joined them to survey the damage. For a moment, all was quiet, and Rikku wondered aloud if they were done.

Yuna looked toward the control panel on top of the head. Baralai—Shuyin—was still in control. And he had issued new commands. Vegnagun regenerated just enough to hold on. Still afraid of being dismantled, the machina clung to the side of the spiral column the way a dragonfly might cling to a long, thin blade of grass that defies logic supporting its weight. Heavily injured, it could not save itself a fall at that height, but it could still fight. Its skull-like, horned face roared, looking as if it might open its jaws and devour them at any moment. But then its proboscis-like cannon extended and charged again. No longer concerned with the Gullwings, it was ready to engage its programmed target.

Exhausted but refusing to give up, Yuna and her friends raced up Vegnagun's arm to the flat surface at the base of its cannon.

The tusks charged with a magical blast, catching the girls by surprise, making them thankful they brought lots of restorative potions. But using the same strategy on the tusks that they used on the arms and chest, they managed to destroy the head and disable Vegnagun's central processor, preventing the cannon from firing into the Farplane's Heart. Vegnagun was finally finished. But their fight wasn't over.

Waiting for Shuyin's inevitable retaliation, Yuna changed back into her gunner sphere. "_Lenne, … what should I say to him? I feel so lost when I look into his eyes. I … I don't know if I can do this."_

Shuyin jumped down from the controls and focused a scathing glare on the trio for destroying his intelligent weapon.

Rikku blinked at Yuna with growing worry, and Paine was clearly on edge and poised to attack. But Yuna drew a sad, nervous breath and changed into Lenne's dress sphere.

The angry, unsent spirit started toward her, his transparent, true form now completely visible over Baralai's body. But he stopped a short distance from her, tilting his chin in a skeptical stance—one that Yuna had seen many times on Tidus's face when he spoke of something for which he felt contempt. It nearly killed her to see him focus that contempt on her now. She froze beneath it. _I can't do this ..._

))((

_"Yes, you can, Yuna. Yes, you can!" _Within the dress sphere, Lenne struggled and strained to break free from her sanctuary. Her magic was weak, but she managed to summon enough pyreflies to project a weak image of herself over the singer sphere. Hopefully, it would be enough to hold off Shuyin's ire while she poured the rest of her energy into breaking free from her self-imposed confinement.

"Shuyin," Yuna spoke, anxiously searching for the right words.

"Lenne?" Shuyin remained doubtful despite seeing her in Yuna's place.

"I want to talk to you. There's words … undelivered for a thousand years." Yuna paused, lowering her gaze. No, this was coming out all wrong. (1)

"_Thank him_," Lenne begged.

"Thank you." Yuna lifted her chin to look at him again, realizing Lenne was trying to help.

_"We walked together, to the end, and … I was happy,"_ Lenne told her.

"We walked together, to the end, and … I was happy," Yuna repeated the spirit's message.

Shuyin's anger softened. "But … I couldn't handle it."

"It's okay. Please ... don't grieve alone," Yuna continued repeating Lenne's thoughts.

"Please sleep," Lenne added, but this time her voice pushed through the pyreflies to speak aloud with Yuna.

Shuyin still seemed torn whether to trust Yuna or not. After a moment of painful indecision, he released his living hostage and stepped away from him.

Baralai slumped to his knees on the floor.

Paine hurried to her friend's side to see if he was okay.

Shuyin cast a brief glance toward the pair behind him, acknowledging he had no refuge now from the magic of the Farplane.

Yuna sighed with relief at his willingness to surrender. But he still looked apprehensive, considering what surrender meant for an unsent spirit.

Lenne was relieved, too, but at the same time, her magic was weakening.

))((

"Can we fade now … together?" Shuyin reached out to Lenne but slowed to a stop when distortion blurred her face and hair. Then, Lenne's illusion melted away, leaving him facing Yuna once more. He'd been tricked, and now, he was trapped. "This is wrong," he answered the betrayal with a threatening glare.

"Wait!" Yuna needed a chance to explain.

"You are not _Lenne!_" With rising anger, Shuyin backed away and shook his head at his own gullibility. Furious that Yuna had used Lenne as a lure, he clenched fistfuls of pyreflies from the air and summoned them into a spirit sword. Then, he summoned more pyreflies into his own body, making his illusion solid enough to pack some serious physical force. Shuyin was completing his transformation into a full-fledged fiend.

))((

Yuna pleaded with him to stop but was abruptly forced to defend herself from an attack she saw Tidus use many times—a fast attack from opponent to opponent, slashing with quick, agile strokes. His perfect execution of Tidus's fighting style took her by surprise. Her concentration floundered.

_"He's not Tidus,"_ she told herself. _"He's an unsent fiend trying to kill us!" _Switching to her dark knight sphere once more, Yuna used Caladbolg to block and push back Shuyin's assault. _"You are not Tidus!"_ she felt like shouting as she swung again, angry at him for not being who she hoped he was. Tears filled her eyes as she blocked another thrust from the spirit sword, but she kept her resolve until finally, with the help of her friends, Shuyin staggered and fell on his back, dropping his sword.

He could have cast magic to control their minds and continued the fight to win. But instead, Shuyin sat up and buried his head into his forearms over one knee. Though not physically defeated, his heart could take no more. And with his head bowed like that, he did look exactly like Tidus.

Yuna lowered her sword, then sheathed it. Gesturing for her friends to hold back, she switched her dress sphere back to the gunner node. "Shuyin ..." She started to approach.

He started to stand but paused on his knees, refusing to look at her. "You couldn't possibly understand," he quietly, resentfully responded. His voice carried so much regret, even now.

But she did understand. That was the problem. Tidus wouldn't have lost heart and quit like that unless he felt like he had nothing left to lose. Shuyin surrendered only because he thought he had lost Lenne. Yuna winced at having to reconcile Tidus's and Shuyin's similarities again. _"Lenne," _Yuna called within. _"Please talk to him. He needs to hear it from you, not me."_

))((

_"I know."_ Lenne tried not to use any magic during the battle to put all of her efforts into pushing through that dress sphere once more. Knowing that in leaving the sphere, she would never be able to seek its sanctuary again, she fortified herself with the pyreflies in the magic of the dress sphere and summoned the strength to break free. With one more tremendous effort, Lenne's spirit finally penetrated the sphere grid's restraints and stumbled through Yuna's body. Standing on her own for the first time in a thousand years, she felt a little wobbly, a little afraid. But this time, she did not hesitate to walk away from Yuna to Shuyin.

))((

Still kneeling, Shuyin had not expected to see Lenne again. But he knew this was her true spirit this time, not just an illusion. "Lenne?" He shook his head, suppressing hope that might suffocate him if it was another trick. He didn't want to hear any more of what she had to say. It would hurt too much. He tried to push her away, but she caught his hand between her own. Lenne didn't fight back. She didn't even scold him. She had released Yuna to come to him. "Lenne ..." His voice faltered as he raised his other hand to grasp both of hers. Shuyin felt as if he was about to fall apart beneath her gaze. Was that sympathy? Or pity? After a thousand years, there was so much to say he hardly knew where to begin.

His overwhelmed, tongue-tied expression drew a warm smile of understanding. "Finally, ne?" she repeated his initial greeting in the Farplane glen.

"Ah." He tried to smile as a tear that he could no longer restrain slid down his cheek. "All of a thousand years spent ... and finally … we get only this?"

"'Only this' is fine," she softly reassured him. Then, shaking her head, she corrected that outlook. "It's _more_ time. Your feelings alone are enough to fill my heart." She lifted his hand to her cheek. "So … let's end this already. Let's go home."

He shook his head, wondering how she could ever forgive him. "Are you sure?"

Placing her hands on his shoulders, she looked him squarely in the eye. "Anything and everything that happened was a thousand years ago. We've come too far to turn back now." Her expression softened once more into a plea. "Let's sleep, Shuyin. Always together ..."

How could she want to be with him after what he let happen to her? Like a child hiding in shame and silent tears in his favorite plushy toy, Shuyin wrapped his arms around Lenne's legs and let his head rest against her skirt.

Lenne smiled and gently smoothed down some of his unruly blond hair as she cradled his head. "I have a new song to sing and give to you," she promised, picking up right where they left off with their daily lives before the war tore them apart.

Catching a breath and sniffling within the folds of her skirt, Shuyin shifted so that his hands blindly, restlessly settled around and then on her hips. After such a long, miserable journey trying to find her, he was never letting go again. Closing his eyes, Shuyin was tired of fighting. He was tired of living a half-life. He just wanted to go home, wherever that was now.

Lenne turned to Yuna with tears in her eyes. "Thank you."

))((

Yuna smiled and nodded as she watched the spirits fade, entwined in a spiral of magical light and color. She didn't have to send them. They both found what they were looking for, and they were already where they belonged. It wasn't the outcome she hoped for when she was given that first sphere of Shuyin, but it was enough to be truly happy for them … and perhaps a little envious.

))((

During Yuna's battle, while the spirits of her father and his guardians cheered her on, Bahamut couldn't ignore the fact that one soul was noticeably missing. As soon as Lenne and Shuyin faded, the boy flew back to the glen. "She did it! Yuna beat Vegnagun and Shuyin!"

Most of the spirits that had awakened and waited for word on the outcome shouted in celebration. A massive flurry of pyreflies burst over the Farplane glen like shimmering fireworks. But Dannae clasped her hands in worry, and Kaila gave Bahamut a look warning to break the other news to her gently.

"Everything's going to be okay," Bahamut told her, beginning to feel nervous about seeing them again ... after everything. "Shuyin's coming home with my sister."

Dannae's relief formed happy tears, and Kaila shared a smile with Bahamut that only the two of them could understand after laboring so hard over that little remnant of Shuyin's soul.

That reminded Bahamut of the other reason he returned so quickly. "Tidus! Can you hear me?" He flew to various lows and heights among the flowers and the falls. "Yuna's here! If she could just hear from you, I know it would make her very happy!"

When the entity did not show itself, Kaila caught up to him and shook her head. "I haven't seen Tidus since … Well, since you were turned into a dark aeon."

Bahamut flew to the outer planes and checked each of the exits beneath the chambers of the Fayth. When he finally found the collection of pyreflies that housed Tidus's memories, they were beneath Vegnagun's warehouse, still waiting where Lord Braska ordered him to lead Yuna out.

"Tidus? Yuna's here! Would you like to see her again?"

These unique pyreflies did not take form because they could not on their own. But a faint thought touched Bahamut's mind—a memory. And the voice belonged to that of a child.

_ "Auron, where do people go when they die?"_

_ "They go where their hearts lead them," _Auron's voice from the past answered.

_ "Auron, where do dreams go when they die?" _the voice asked again, slightly altered.

_ "They fade away,"_ Auron alternately answered.

Bahamut was stunned. The pyreflies that once illuminated these remnants of Shuyin's broken soul had scattered too far and wide to communicate conventionally. Yet his conscience was altering pieces of its own unique memories to express itself. "Okay, I know she can't really see you again, but … Ugh! Just ... come with me. We'll figure something out."

))((

Yuna and her party headed for the teleporter the Gullwings crew placed in the Farplane glen for a safe and easy return to the ship when she heard a familiar whistle echo throughout the meadow. Holding her breath, she came to a halt and scanned the field. The whistle seemed to come from everywhere at once and nowhere in specific.

Pyreflies coalesced near her as Bahamut materialized. "Thanks," he offered heartfelt gratitude for saving him and Spira once more.

"You're very welcome." She smiled. So, the Fayth still existed down here in a state of rest. That was nice to know.

"You heard it, didn't you?" he hinted. "You want to see him?"

"_Him?_" The question caught Yuna off-guard, but there was only one person he could be talking about.

"Yes. You want to walk together again?"

She was hesitant to appear eager or selfish. And she didn't want to get her hopes up, only to be disappointed again. Still, her heart ached at the possibility. Yuna answered his question with a small nod and a quiet, "Yes."

"I can't promise anything, but we'll do what we can," Bahamut told her.

Yuna smiled as the spirit started to fade. Then, she reached to detain him just a moment longer to ask what he meant by that, but the Fayth was already gone. Straightening, she looked around the magical glen once more. The whistle did not repeat, and no other familiar spirits appeared. Confused and already somewhat disappointed again, Yuna hurried to catch up with her friends.

))((

"Bahamut!" Lenne gave her little brother a big hug as soon as she arrived in the center of the glen. "We're home! We're finally home! Oh, it's so good to see you again!" Behind him, her mother and other spirits from within her family began appearing to welcome her.

"Lenne!" The boy returned her exaggerated hug that nearly bowled him over. But when she released him, his gaze shifted past her to where Shuyin stood.

Shuyin offered a sad smile but made no move otherwise. It was the first time in a long time that he saw Bahamut for what he really was—a small boy. If the boy wanted nothing more to do with him, he completely understood.

Bahamut moved around his sister to approach his "big brother" with caution, then wrapped his arms around his waist in the same child-like manner with which Shuyin held onto Lenne moments earlier.

"I'm sorry," Shuyin spoke, resting his hand on the boy's purple-hooded head. But as he lifted his gaze, he saw more spirits forming in the mists. So many dead souls—too many to count. Among them, he saw faces he knew. His father, his mother, and Kaila appeared. He saw teammates and classmates. But one face he hoped to see was absent.

"Koji?" he asked of Kaila.

She sadly shook her head.

Stunned, Shuyin exchanged a worried look with Lenne. Leaving Bahamut's side, he drew Kaila into a hug. Kaila broke into tears, so relieved to finally have her childhood friend back. Lenne moved forward to embrace them both, sharing their sorrow.

"He may never be able to forgive me, but he'll come home ... someday," Shuyin insisted. Then, lifting his head above Kaila's to check the crowd one more time, he saw other familiar faces—the faces of his victims.

Burdened by the guilt of a thousand years, Shuyin let go of Lenne and Kaila and lowered himself to his hands and knees, bowing his head to the ground before the entire gathering. "I am so sorry," he spoke in a broken whisper as tears filled his eyes once more. It didn't matter. That whisper could be heard all across the Farplane. "I won't ask for forgiveness. I know I don't deserve it. But I'm starting to figure things out now, and I promise I will do everything I can to make amends somehow ... even from this place."

"Shuyin, everyone here has made mistakes and needs forgiveness."

Shuyin lifted his tear-streaked face to meet an unfamiliar spirit standing before him. The man wore a heavy, layered robe and an elaborate headdress but met his confusion with a gentle smile. He was sure he'd seen his likeness somewhere before, but he couldn't place him.

"Please, call me Braska." The man offered his hand, encouraging him to stand. "Trust can be complicated to fix once it's broken. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is not earned. It is given. Your mistake led to a miracle that gave my daughter life and hope, even if she doesn't know it yet. And for that, I am grateful to you."

Shuyin looked at the extended hand and hesitantly accepted Braska's help to stand again. "Your ... daughter?"

"Yuna."

Surprised at meeting the high summoner's father, Shuyin lowered his gaze in shame again. He had tried to kill her, yet her father was thanking him?

Jecht folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah, in a weird kind of way, your stubborn refusal to come home led to something good." He then extended his hand. "Can you forgive an old fool who regrets not being able to see his son grow into a man?"

Shuyin hesitantly accepted his father's hand, and Jecht drew him in for a long-overdue hug.

"I'm proud of you, boy." It was hard to say and almost stuck in his throat, but Jecht coughed it out. "You got that crybaby business from your mother, but you got those fancy sword moves from me," he jokingly added, giving his son's shoulder a firm pat.

Shuyin snorted at the teasing remark and pulled back with a sniffle. "You wish, old man."

Everyone in the gathering laughed.

"Yep, you're Jecht's kid, alright." Auron smirked in amusement at finally getting to meet the source of his headaches in Dream Zanarkand. "Your shirt used to be good for that kind of thing when you were seven, by the way," he added just as Shuyin was about to wipe his cheek on the upper sleeve of his uniform.

Shuyin paused. "Do I know you?" He was certain he would have remembered a man with a long scar on his face.

"No," Auron happily answered. "But knowing one of you is enough."

Confused, Shuyin pulled a face that made everyone laugh again.

"Shu ..." Dannae gave her son a tearful hug. "I'm so sorry I didn't pay more attention to your needs. You took better care of me than I did of you, sometimes." His mother stepped back to admire him with a sad smile, but then her attention drifted to the pretty girl beside him. "This must be Lenne. It's so nice to finally meet you, Lenne."

Lenne smiled somewhat bashfully and returned a small, polite bow. "It's nice to meet you, too."

"He came here looking for you once and ..." Dannae started crying again. "You have no idea what you've given back to me. I'm so glad to see him again, and now both of you can rest with us."

"Yeah, but … what if I'm not ready to rest _just yet_?" Shuyin turned around to survey the surreal landscape of the meadow and beyond. "This place looks like it might be kinda fun to explore." He whirled back around to face Lenne. "Hey! We should go back to Zanarkand! The pyreflies there are thick enough that it wouldn't be any problem to walk around a little."

"Oh, good lords," Jecht grumbled. "You sound just like your brother."

Shuyin blinked in astonishment. _"Brother?"_ Stepping back, he waved his hands. "Woah, woah, woah. Alright, which one of you had an affair?" He looked accusingly at his parents but then jabbed a finger into Jecht's chest. "It was _you_, wasn't it? It _had_ to be you."

Everyone laughed once more, including Dannae. "No, dear. Your father has always been faithful to me." She met Jecht's gaze, and they shared a smile. "Always."

Bahamut stepped forward and reluctantly tugged at Shuyin's shirt to reclaim his attention. "Actually, remember that time I came to see you in the cavern, and we had that big fight?"

Shuyin sighed. "I'd rather not, but … yeah. What about it?"

"Well, since you refused to help with our plans to fight Yu Yevon, I stole a little part of your soul to … make someone who would."

Shuyin blinked in mute surprise. Then he started to laugh. But then, he realized he was the only one who seemed to think that was a joke. "You're kidding, right?"

The boy shook his head.

Shuyin was incredulous. "You _cloned_ me?"

Lenne gasped. "Bahamut, how could you? Wait …"

"He's not _really _a clone," Bahamut quickly answered in his own defense.

"They created an illusion of me first," Jecht explained. "But when Yevon possessed me and turned me into Sin, they decided to use you to break the spell."

"And it worked," Braska spoke up. "Or my daughter wouldn't be alive today. That's where your mistake became a miracle."

"But ..." Shuyin's brows dipped in confused anger. "Wait, _you_ were Sin?" He pointed an accusing finger at Jecht. "That thing that blew away Operation Mi'ihen and Kilika and—"

"Yevon possessed my mind and my body when I became Braska's Final Aeon, but I held back as much as I could so that your other half could end it."

"My other—" Shuyin's protest was abruptly silenced when he remembered the day he escaped the Den of Woe—the day that he saw Yuna traveling with someone that looked like him. "He's the one Yuna must have been looking for in my spheres," he slowly realized.

"That's right!" Lenne echoed. "Yuna kept a sphere in her drawer of a guy that looked and sounded exactly like you. Oh my gosh! He _really_ was you?"

Shuyin couldn't wrap his head around this. "So, you _didn't_ clone me, but there are _two_ of me?"

"Not exactly." Kaila gave him a guilty, somewhat uncertain smile. "He may look, sound, and move like you. And sometimes he's just as cheesy as you. No, I take that back. He's actually more cheesy than you. But Tidus is somehow different from you now."

Shuyin's expression went flat. "Tidus?"

"Actually, he's different from everyone else, too. He's around here somewhere, but he's kinda all over the place ... restless." Kaila looked around for the tell-tale cluster of pyreflies.

"You _actually_ named him Tidus?" Shuyin still couldn't believe it. "That stupid nickname was my signature—my trademark. You can't give someone else my trademark, Kaila."

"Yeah? Because there are _soooo_ many blitzballs for you to sign here in the Farplane?" Kaila scoffed and his complaint. "And technically, he's not someone else. He's part of you." Kaila pointed to the pyreflies above them that were beginning to drift and spread like a nebula in their own small universe.

"Okay, that doesn't look anything like me." Still, Shuyin was amazed that they had been able to do such a thing. And he was astonished that they had chosen him of all people to supply the soul.

"It used to look like you because the magic that made him was drawn from my memories of you. But when the Fayth were sent, so was the dream magic. So … he's like this now." She saddened as she looked up at the cluster of memories wrapped around the little bit of soul. "His memories are scattered all over the place, but he refuses to let go and rest—just like someone else we know."

"But he won't last this way forever," Bahamut added. "Tidus is fading."

))((

Author's Notes:

1) Disclaimer repeat on game dialog, and once more, I switched to Japanese version and my own loose translations. The main reason this time is pretty much the same as last. The English version Shuyin is too emotionally distant to be consistent with the Shuyin I've presented in this story, so I fell back on the original Japanese to draw inspiration for a more emotionally vulnerable, unstable Shuyin. But there is also the matter of Yuna once again saying, "I love you," instead of her original "Arigatou/Thank you" dialog. And finally, I didn't want to pass up Lenne's use of "Zutto issho ni/always together" at the end—something Yuna would somewhat envy.


	43. Chapter 43: Home

Chapter 43: Home

The souls of the Farplane remained clustered around the family and friends of the two newcomers as word passed around that Tidus was fading. This had been obvious to any spirit aware of him and his unique predicament for the past two years, but it came as a sad shock to Lenne. She knew how Yuna would have felt if she knew. "You mean, he's fading from the Farplane? I thought souls lasted forever in here."

"Normally, they do," Kaila explained. "But Tidus's soul is part of Shuyin. He's not a copy. Tidus lived and died as Shuyin. He just doesn't know it. He knows he's not real, but he still thinks he's a completely new person. And in many ways, he is. He's proved that to us more than enough times."

"His body was made of illusion magic, and he has altered memories and new experiences—experiences that make him different from you," Bahamut explained to Shuyin. "But the Farplane reclaimed his physical substance almost as soon as he came here. And over the past two years, it's claimed most of his earliest memories. He's fighting to hang onto recent ones, though. We're not sure what will happen when all his memories dissolve, but we think his soul could become an empty shell with no knowledge of who he used to be."

Lenne saddened even more. "Like having amnesia or being brain dead?"

Her little brother nodded. "Something like that. For all we know, his soul might even melt away if it has no sense of _self_ to hold it together. It might be possible to save him if we merge him back into Shuyin to make both of them whole again, but that might also destroy him. Once he has access to Shuyin's memories, it might be as if Tidus never existed."

Shuyin put a hand to his chest, not sure he wanted to attempt an experiment like that. "Are you sure? Because when I talk to myself, I don't want to hear myself talk back, you know?"

Bahamut shrugged. "That's just it. I'm not sure. We've never done anything like this before."

"Will something happen to me if we're _not _merged back together?"

"I don't know. Nothing changed for you when he was created, right? However, everything has changed for him since he was sent." Bahamut studied Shuyin's expression before continuing. "Since it's your soul, it should be your decision what happens to him now. You don't have to decide anything right away. Just know that his memories are slowly fading, and that's what made him Tidus instead of you." Bahamut gave a sympathetic sigh. "Also, there's Yuna. She would like to see him again if we could find a way … somehow."

Shuyin's gaze returned to the collection of pyreflies overhead. "Does she love him?"

"Very much so," Lenne answered for Yuna as she watched the little flecks of magic-trapped memories orbiting their tiny sun.

"And does he love her?"

Kaila saddened. "He let go of himself to protect her. He knew ending the dream would end his own existence, but he helped bring an end to the dream all the same, for her sake and his friends … and his father … and us."

Shuyin lowered his chin to meet Kaila's meaningful gaze. "In other words, it's not just a passing fling."

Kaila was happy that he remembered their discussion about that, but she was sad that this was how it manifested for Tidus. "He chose this half-baked state of existence, though fading into nothingness might end his misery. We don't know if he's still here because he's waiting for her to join him or if it's because he still hopes for a way back. It's hard to communicate with him like this. But his essence is still in there … somewhere."

Shuyin looked to Lenne, who looked back at him as if there was only one obvious answer. "You have to send him back," he told Bahamut and Kaila.

"But, he's part of your soul," Bahamut warned. "If he doesn't rest, you may never be able to truly rest in peace. It could mean a very long eternity for you."

"An eternity without sleep beats spending an eternity separated from the person you love. Always searching … I've been there already. I know what that's like." Shuyin gave his head a shake. "Yuna understood me better than I knew myself. Please send him back to her. I owe her for helping me find someone I thought I had lost forever." He looked to Lenne and felt her fingers lace between his own as she smiled back at him.

Bahamut was pleased Shuyin felt that way about it. "Then the only thing holding us back is that we don't know how to do it."

Lenne released Shuyin's hand to pace a few steps back and forth among the moonflowers. "He was originally made from illusion magic—memories—right? If it's anything like summoning aeons, maybe I could give it a try."

The boy glanced to Lord Braska, remembering their discussion, and shook his head. "It needs to be done by someone who exists in the material and spirit realms at the same time—someone like Sin." His gaze shifted to Shuyin. "Or you."

Shuyin's eyes narrowed with suspicion, and he pointed to himself. "Me?"

Surprised but amused, Lenne pulled his pointed gesture away from his own face and patted his hand. "Blitzball player by day; summoner by night. Looks like maybe I wasn't the only one moonlighting?"

His brief smirk fell to shame. "Hardly."

"I'm talking about my dark aeon," Bahamut hesitantly reminded him.

"Yeah, I know." Shuyin scratched his nose and sighed.

"You're the one who turned him against Yuna?" Lenne quietly asked.

It killed him to see the disappointment in her eyes. "I'm—"

She placed her fingers over his lips to stop the apology before he could say it. "It doesn't matter now. It's over. How can we use it to help her?"

Shuyin moved her hand away from his mouth. "You don't want me helping Yuna. The magic I used to summon the dark aeons isn't even real summoning magic. It's force. It's ..." He didn't know how to describe it because he didn't know how he came to have that ability.

Kaila crouched and ran a hand over the tops of the moonflowers stirring up some lazy pyreflies. "Shuyin, do you ever remember touching Sin?"

"Once. I bumped into it near Bevelle when it was drawing souls to join it, but I didn't want to be part of that." He crouched in front of her. "You think that's where the dark magic came from?"

"And the dark feelings," Bahamut agreed. "You used to feel like raw emotion, but you must have shed the toxin when you came here." Standing taller than Shuyin for once, the boy patted the top of the blitzball player's head. "I don't feel anything like that now."

"Without Sin's toxin, can you still use the magic?" Kaila picked one of the moonflowers.

"I don't know. Honestly, I'm a little afraid to try."

"The toxin that tainted your soul is still in you," a voice spoke from the outer circle of the gathered souls. "It's just calm in this place of rest." The gathering parted to allow High Summoner Yu Yevon through. His presence surprised all of the spirits. But as he stood before Shuyin and Lenne's inner circle of friends and family, Shuyin and Kaila straightened, and Lenne offered a flustered bow out of habit. The glen became silent except for the eerie sounds of pyreflies drifting about. "The toxin fortified your spirit, allowing it to travel through reality in ways most spirits cannot. Your ability to possess other souls will work regardless of which plane you exist on. However, you won't last long in the material world without a living host before you're banished back here. And only a living soul, or an unsent one with a living shell, is capable of summoning life back into reality."

Yevon scanned the wary expressions on everyone's faces, then greeted Lenne with a polite bow of his own. "Perhaps I am the last person you want to see, welcoming you home, but I never got to commend you for your service to Zanarkand during the war. I've been listening to this discussion with much interest, and I think I can help. I know a way around your dilemma. It involves a spell similar to that used for summoning the Final Aeon."

Shuyin frowned and defiantly folded his arms. "Yeah? Well, maybe we don't want your help."

Beside him, even Lenne looked skeptical about the High Summoner's intentions.

Yevon met their unhappy frowns with a wan smile. "Understandable. Your faith in me was … undeserved. I failed both of you, and I humbly apologize for letting you down. But I truly was trying to save as many people as I could. My mistake was believing the end always justifies the means. That and allowing myself to become blinded by hate in the process."

A snarky insult nearly slipped from Shuyin's tongue, but he caught it when he realized he couldn't say anything to Yevon that wouldn't boomerang back on himself. Annoyed that all he could do was be annoyed, Shuyin settled for responding with an angry snort.

"If you choose not to trust me," Yevon continued. "I will leave. But each of you played a role in freeing me from my madness, as did your experimental illusion and Lady Yuna." He glanced up at Tidus's pyreflies, then back down to Lenne. "I can think of no better way to show my gratitude than to help him live again if that's what they both want."

"We want to give life, not take it or trade it." It was the first time Lenne had confronted the man about his plans for her since learning the truth a thousand years ago.

"Of course. Allow me to explain. You know that the bond between the summoner and the guardian is very strong. It's the same kind of bond that allows a soul to become a Fayth—a voluntary willingness to trust and serve. But an aeon of great power, such as the one granted at the Zanarkand shrine, requires an _exceptionally_ strong bond of trust between a summoner and guardian. Because only a pure desire to protect one another can draw two souls together through death and back to life to fight as one. The guardian allows the summoner to possess him, fortifying his spirit with magic to pull him from eternal rest, giving him physical life in the form of an aeon. He voluntarily obeys his summoner's commands and gives one-hundred percent of himself to his summoner's protection. But to do this, the summoner must voluntarily transfer some of his own physical and mental constitution to his guardian spirit." Yevon's gaze rested on Braska and Jecht.

"What he says is true," Braska confirmed against the doubting looks among their company.

"And then they both die," Jecht grumbled at his former captor.

Yevon pursed his lips and nodded, accepting the blitzball player's resentment. "In this case, you don't want to create something new, so no one has to die. You just want to throw the creation you already have out there into the real world. But your Final Aeon needs a summoner strong enough to pull it through from the other side—someone, who wants it to be real. If the bond between Lady Yuna and her guardian is as strong as you say it is—if it is as strong as the Final Summoning bond—her living soul can act as a lightning rod to his. Nothing more."

"Yuna … won't be hurt?" Braska asked with caution.

"And Tidus won't be turned into a monster?" Jecht remained doubtful.

"Neither of them will be hurt," Yevon promised. "This is not that kind of spell. It only resembles it because a powerful bond of trust is needed to dissolve the boundary between life and death. Without this spell, all you can offer is a pyrefly illusion—a ghost. They would not be able to touch because he would be forever bound inside the flow of magic."

"How can we help Yuna summon him?" Lenne asked, not sure she understood. "We can't go to her anymore."

"If her desire to be with him again is strong enough, that can become an act of summoning in itself. If his will to live is strong enough, and he can sense her thoughts and feelings, he may be strong enough to pull himself through the portal … with a little push from us. All we need is a location close to Yuna with a lot of pyreflies, a portal into reality, and someone who can set up the lightning rod." He turned to face Shuyin.

"Let me guess. I'm setting up the lightning rod," he muttered.

"I think it's worth a try," Lenne looked around to see if anyone else was in agreement.

"But I don't know how to do this kind of magic," Shuyin complained.

"Then do _your_ kind of magic. Leave the rest to me," Yevon told him. "You are connected to him in a way no one else can be. Only you can understand the way he thinks and how he loves because you share one soul. You must be the one to bring her to his portal since he cannot deliver that message himself. If the summoner is near the portal and intensely focused on him, their love for each other will forge and summon the bond that reconnects him to life."

Lenne's expression lit with a sudden smile. "I know how you can do it! I know how you can reach Yuna." She turned to Kaila and gestured to the moonflower that she held. "May I?"

Kaila nodded and passed the magical flower to Lenne.

"Speak to her using my sphere." Lenne transferred the flower to Shuyin. "And give her this."

))((

Valefor led the way through the streams of magic flowing from the Farplane into the ocean and the sunken ruins off the coast of Besaid. "I don't see it right now, but Yuna lives on an airship that is usually parked on the beach. Wherever she is, I'm sure the airship will come back to this spot when she comes home."

Shuyin looked at the canopy of saltwater above them. He admired the way the sun danced and sparkled over the surface of the water, casting beams of ethereal light through the ruins and onto the sand. "You know what I'm thinking?" He grinned at Lenne as he swam toward a crumbled tower full of red-and-blue coral, black seaweed, and yellow, purple, and pink fish. "I think this would make a good fixer-upper to replace the houseboat. It's a little late to get flood insurance, and the monkey would drown, but ..."

Lenne laughed as she looked into one of the barnacle-encrusted windows. "But the view is spectacular, right?" she said as the school of colorful fish swam by.

High Summoner Yevon looked at the ruins with a sigh. "This was my doing. It used to be a beach resort city. I hope Besaid can rebuild someday. Until then, this is a good location for the portal. Lenne, would you help Yunalesca gather the Fayth and volunteer summoners into a circle."

Lenne smiled at Shuyin and gave him a kiss as she swam away to help do one last communal summoning for Yuna's sake. He loved the way her long hair flowed around her like that in the water. Once again, she reminded him of a mermaid, which reminded him of their trip to the hot spring, which made him smile.

"Kaila and Bahamut." Yevon turned to them. "I need you to start working on some pyreflies." Summoning his staff, he cast a magical glyph in the center of the circle that was forming. "With a little help, of course." Placing a hand on Kaila's head, he cast the same spell over her that allowed her to construct memories out of pyreflies in the dream."

Kaila was happy to swim into the glowing symbol and begin summoning her memories back into a semi-solid illusion. "Tidus?" she called with a soft voice that echoed through the plane of magic. Pyreflies began streaming toward her from various directions, followed by a little nucleus of light. Bahamut then drew upon his own summoning magic to fold the scattered memories around the soul and into the image.

Shuyin watched in silent fascination as his friends created a new version of him—Abes uniform and all. He moved into the circle for a closer look when Yevon caught his arm and pulled him back.

"You hold the lightning rod. Once I open the portal, you won't have much time to pass it to Yuna."

Shuyin nodded, remembering his task. A lightning rod draws lightning toward it so that it doesn't strike where it's not wanted. Tidus needed Yuna's undivided attention if this was going to work. He knew _what_ he had to do. He just didn't know _how_ yet.

With the initial illusion finished, Kaila and Bahamut examined him once more to make sure nothing was amiss. Then, they joined the circle with the other summoners and Fayth. All of the spirits joined hands to draw a greater multitude of pyreflies—so many that no one would be able to distinguish the illusion apart from reality. As the illusion's body became denser, Yu Yevon stepped forward, lifted his summoning staff, and nodded to Shuyin. Then, the master summoner began to dance. The summoners and Fayth in the circle began to dance around him. It was a sending dance, but it was being done in reverse.

Shuyin broke away from the other spirits and swam down the stream of magic toward the beach. To anyone watching, it would have looked like one stray pyrefly escaped from an unusually active cluster. But no one on the beach paid any attention to the pyreflies in the depths of the ocean currents. Shuyin tried to think of the best way he could hop around in the real world, and he knew he found the vehicle he was looking for when a blitzball plunged into the water, then floated back to the surface. As soon as the owner of the ball came toward it, Shuyin targeted him with his spell.

Wakka grabbed the ball but then turned toward Lulu, who was sitting on the beach, letting Vidina play in the sand. "Hey, Lu! Where's Yuna?"

Lulu looked up from casting a shield over the baby to protect his fair skin from the sun. "She said she was going to Luca today, remember? New Yevon, The Youth League, and The Machine Guild announced they were holding a public conference at the stadium."

"Yeah, but would she be on the airship or just walking around somewhere?"

"How would I know?"

"Okay, do you know where she keeps her sphere of Tidus?"

Lulu blinked at the unexpected question. "What?"

"Oh, wait! Lenne said it was in a drawer! Nevermind. Thanks!" Shuyin withdrew his magic from Wakka's mind.

Lulu frowned. "Lenne who?"

Wakka blinked back at her. "Lenne? What Lenne?"

"That's what I'm asking you. And what do you want with Yuna's sphere?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm not the one asking weird questions, ya? Crazy woman …"

Shuyin snickered to himself as he sped down the magical current in the water toward Luca. When he reached the docks, the red airship was hard to miss. Modern Spira had so few air machina. In Zanarkand, many machina also had magic powering them in some way. Shuyin hoped this was one of those machina.

Swimming through the stream of magic toward the landing gear, he flowed from the stream into the machina's inner circuitry, then sped through the airship's construct and wires. He got shocked multiple times when the magic flow broke off in one place and picked up in another, and he cursed Yevon's lightning rod idea with each zap, but he hung on tenaciously as he raced through the levels until he found the deck that looked like the ship's bridge.

"Hey, what's wrong with this scanner?" Buddy complained, giving his monitor a smack. The sudden static and black-outs usually meant another part needed replacing, and he was in no mood for emergency maintenance.

"Brother!" Yuna's voice came through the speakers. "It's time to go home!"

"Then prepare for lift-off!" Brother exclaimed from his pilot seat. The airship rumbled as the engines kicked in.

From within the scanner, Shuyin cast his magic on Buddy. "Hey, Yuna? Where are you?"

"I'm on the top deck with Paine and Rikku."

"Crud. That's too windy for pyreflies," Buddy groused, annoyed.

"We want to enjoy the ride!" she happily answered.

"Great. First, I get electrocuted, and now I'm going to get blown overboard. Next time, _I_ open the portal, and _he _gets to be the lightning rod." Buddy jumped up from his seat and ran to the lift.

Brother and Shinra blinked in dismay at Buddy's exit, then Shinra stood to check the monitor, which seemed to be working perfectly now.

))((

After Vegnagun's defeat, the three faction leaders that had gone missing returned and arranged to hold a joint conference in the Luca stadium that was open to all factions' members and the general public. Their aim was to demonstrate their own unification in hopes of mending the political fracturing they had caused since the beginning of the Eternal Calm. Then, all three of them bowed in apology to the people of Spira who believed in them.

"Somehow, we forgot." Baralai's voice echoed throughout Luca as his image displayed on the large screens along the central walkway. "There's a much larger ship out there. One we've been riding ever since we were born. That ship is Spira." (1)

The crowds cheered and applauded. Of course, few people knew the literal truth behind his statement and all that machina under Bevelle, but that was a secret New Yevon needed to keep for now.

"No one knows just where our voyage will lead us. But we do know one thing." Nooj looked to his buddies, and a rare smile touched his lips. "One way or another, we will get by. We'll go on living. The Calm will continue," he assured the stadium full of people.

There were more cheers and applause.

"Just one more thing." Gippal bent to the microphone. "We all owe thanks to a very special lady." He milked the crowd for a few more cheers. "Yeah, you all know who I'm talking about. We really hoped that she could be here today. She left a message. She said she's going home. So farewell, but not goodbye."

He had no sooner said it than all three heads turned to watch the Celsius airship rise high above Luca and shoot off into the bright blue sky toward Besaid.

))((

"Brother! Higher!" Yuna's voice came through the speakers within the ship's lower deck.

"Rogeru!" Brother's voice answered in the cabin.

Buddy's race led up the stairs to Yuna's bed, where he quickly pulled open drawers and sifted through them. Then, he abruptly stopped because he had the feeling he was being watched. Turning around revealed no one, but he found Shinra staring up at him after he adjusted his gaze down.

The Al Bhed boy shook his head. "I'm going to pretend I didn't see this. It's a sad statement about your need for a holiday. Brother sent me to tell you to get back to your chair. The scanner is working fine now."

Buddy cringed at how inappropriate this probably looked. "Wait. Yuna wants her sphere of Tidus, but she didn't tell me which drawer she keeps it in."

"Whichever one has a keepsake box, of course. Where else would a girl keep something like that?" Shinra shook his head again and walked away.

"Keepsake box." Buddy fumbled with the drawers again until he found a small chest at the back of one. Pulling a lacy bra away from it, he lingered with surprise but then reminded himself he shouldn't be lingering and set the chest on Yuna's bed. Opening it and removing the sphere, he touched the activation button. Shuyin didn't have to watch the whole thing because seeing himself talking to her was weird enough to confirm it was the right one. Setting the sphere on her pillow, Shuyin released his hold on Buddy.

Buddy wondered what he was doing near Yuna's bed, especially since Yuna wasn't there. But his only witness seemed to be a single pyrefly hovering near a sphere on her pillow.

Shuyin watched Buddy make a hasty retreat, then reached into his pocket and removed the moonflower. He started to place it beside the sphere but then realized the magical flower wouldn't last if he left it unprotected. Instead, Shuyin pressed it through the glass, placing the flower inside the sphere. The magic in the water from Lake Macalania might be able to preserve it. However, with no living host or magical current to reside in, Shuyin knew his time in reality would start ticking down.

On his way through the lift to seek out Yuna, he found her and her friends coming down from the top deck. Grateful that she was no longer in the blustery wind, the pyrefly slipped unnoticed into Yuna's sphere grid, and then he reached through it into her mind. "_Yuna … Come to the beach." _Message delivered, Shuyin released the dress sphere, slipped back through the ship's circuitry, and fell into the sky. He still had one more task to do.

))((

On the upper deck, Yuna had been thinking of how Tidus's sphere led to this grand adventure. She had been wishing she could tell him about it. But hearing his voice in her mind like that … Did she imagine it? His voice had been clear and close, as if he stood next to her, whispering in her ear. "Tidus?" Yuna suddenly ran to the bridge, leaving Paine and Rikku with bewildered expressions.

"Brother! Buddy! Shinra! Has anyone picked up unusual signals from Besaid's beach? Anything at all?"

"No, but ..." Shinra cast a slanted glance toward Buddy.

Buddy broke into a nervous sweat. "Why would she want to check her drawers for spheres?"

"I didn't say anything about—"

"That's why we have a scanner."

"Sphere? The sphere in my drawer?" Yuna turned and raced back down the hall to the lift.

"What—" Paine started to ask as she flew past.

"Yunie?" Rikku questioned.

"Sorry! No time!" Yuna apologized, shutting the doors on them. As soon as the lift settled on the lower deck and opened again, Yuna raced through the cabin and up the stairs to her bed. She was stunned to see her drawers turned out. But she was even more stunned to see her sphere of Tidus out of its box and on her pillow. And her breath caught when she picked it up to find a single flower from the Farplane glen inside of it.

_"I can't promise anything, but we'll do what we can," Bahamut had told her._

Dropping the sphere on the bed, Yuna ran back to the lift. As soon the doors opened to the engine room, she rushed to the window. "Faster, Brother! Hurry!" Still above the clouds, it was impossible to see anything below. "Open the hatch!"

"It would be helpful if we landed first," Brother's voice answered over the speakers.

"Yunie, what's going on?" Rikku took over the link.

"He's here! He's back! Hurry! Open the hatch!" Yuna ran to the exit ramp.

))((

Shuyin flew back to the summoning circle as fast as he could. Yevon's portal burned through the stream of magic into the ocean itself. With no time to waste, Shuyin grabbed Jecht and Auron as he swept over them. "Come on! Help me push him through before it closes!" The three of them snatched the illusion and swam with him to the portal, releasing him into the pyreflies around the sunken ruins.

Swirling around the reborn illusion one last time, Shuyin cast his magic but only briefly touched his twin soul's mind before letting him go. "_Wake up. She's waited long enough."_ The lightning rod connected. Yevon's spirit magic ignited with a stormy flash. And when the bubbles, lightning, and pyreflies cleared, their illusion was gone.

))((

Sensation ... He could hear the waves of the ocean, dull and far-reaching beyond him. With only a moment of initial hesitation, Tidus lifted his chin and found that he could move again. Giving his small body a big stretch overdue from a long hibernation, he grinned at feeling cold, saltwater on his skin once more. There was sunlight up above, so he swam toward it. Breaking the surface, he filled his lungs with air. Treading water, he turned around to see where he was. Besaid ...

He had no idea how or why he arrived. He only knew he was glad to be back. After giving a loud, shrill whistle to let Yuna know he was here, he smiled at the warmth of the sun on his face and lay back in the water to watch the clouds pass while he waited to be found. Less than a second later, he decided he had waited long enough and swam for the shore.

As he waded through the shallow tide toward the beach, he heard a distant roar in the sky behind him. _What the ...?_ He squinted into the sun. _An airship …_ An airship he didn't recognize … An airship he didn't recognize that was moving so fast it looked like it was going to run him over! Too stunned to run, he used his arms to shield himself as it swooshed low, blowing wind and water in a turbulent spray. But when he heard machina grinding and realized he was still standing, he turned around to see someone running down the opening hatch. Yuna leaped into the water before the ship touched down. Tidus was surprised by her arrival but congratulated himself on an exceptionally well-done whistle.

Yuna collided with him in a full-body hug that nearly plowed him backward. Tidus wrapped his arms around her in return, both refusing to give up the embrace.

"Are you … the real thing?" she asked, afraid to hear the answer, afraid to let him go. (2)

He felt real enough. However, they had both been fooled once before by his surreal existence. "Maybe." His muted response reflected his uncertainty. The memory of fading from reality still felt too fresh to take anything for granted.

Yuna reluctantly released his neck to step back and survey him. Hesitantly, she placed her palms over his chest and gave a light press. Her hands didn't pass through him this time.

Tidus was relieved to feel her touch. His clothing felt cold and wet, and his skin felt warm, already beginning to dry a bit. But he couldn't trust his own senses to know whether he was real or not. Did he still look like himself? He couldn't tell if she was disappointed with what she saw. "Do I pass?" he asked, brows rising with a measure of worry.

"Mh." Yuna nodded with a smile of approval. "You're back."

"I'm back." A wave of emotion nearly overwhelmed him as he pulled her to his chest, wrapping one arm over her shoulders and the other around her waist. "I'm home," he repeated in a grateful, broken voice. Burying his face into the base of her neck, he struggled to stay in control over the tears that were forming, even if they were tears of joy.

Yuna closed her eyes and allowed herself to be wholly engulfed in his embrace once more. "Welcome home."

))((

With the reverse-sending rites done, the spirits from the Farplane commended each other for their success and began their journey back through the stream of magic to rest once more.

"Thank you," Lenne told Yevon as the High Summoner started to go.

"Glad to be of help." He nodded and looked to Shuyin. "I guess I'm starting to figure things out now." With a small smile, the ancient summoner's pyreflies dispersed, and he went on his way.

"See you back in the glen!" Jecht called to his son. With waves, he, his wife, and his friends were gone.

"Thank you. Both of you." Kaila gave Shuyin and Lenne hugs. "_Rest_," she sternly scolded with an accusing finger as she pulled away and disappeared.

Lenne chuckled lightly and looked to Shuyin as if waiting for him to defy the order.

"So, what do we now?" he asked, turning to her.

She laughed at the predictable question and slipped her hand into his as they swam through the stream of magic back toward the Farplane. "Now, we can rest."

"But that sounds so boring," he complained. "I got a little brother now. I say we go pick on him. That's what little brothers are for, right?" He gave Bahamut's head a scrub as the boy accompanied them.

Bahamut grinned. It was good to have the real Shuyin back. Then he raced ahead, leaving them alone.

Shuyin continued plotting. "We could haunt him, you know? I could go out there and hide his blitzball or something. I could make his reflection pull funny faces at him in the mirror or put words in his mouth that he shouldn't say. Oh! I could make him have funky dreams so that he talks in his sleep or wakes up with drool running down his chin." He giggled with mischief. "This could be really fun."

Lenne laughed at his prank ideas, but then her laughter softened with unexpected tears.

"Hey ..." Shuyin drew near in apology and took her back into his arms. "I was just kidding. If you want me to rest, I'll rest, okay? Promise."

Lenne dried her eyes. "If you're not ready to rest, I'll go wherever you want to go. It's just … I never got to tell you how much I love you before all this happened."

"Yes, you did. I understood."

She touched his cheek. "It's so nice to see you smile again. Welcome home, Shu."

Resting his cheek against her forehead, he closed his eyes and sighed a contented sigh. "I'm home."

))((

"Every man has his follies, and often they are the most interesting thing he has got." - Josh Billings

The End

))((

Author's Note:

1) This line from Baralai about Spira being a ship inspired the first story in this series ("Spira's Dream") and the whole idea that their world might be made of machina. I thought it was ironic how much technology existed under a church that forbids technology, even down in the Farplane.

2) I had initially cut and pasted Tidus and Yuna's reunion scene from my "Spira's Dream" story, but I decided to revamp it a bit and move into Tidus's perspective. The dialog is my translation of the Japanese version. I chose the switch because, again, I prefer the emotion that comes across in his Japanese actor's voice. (Yes, I realize no one else might share my dilemma hearing two voice actors in my head and having to choose one over the over.) ^_^ But also, I wanted to add a note on two phrases: "Okaeri" and "Tadaima." I wish there was a better way to translate these! Basically, they mean "welcome home" and "I'm home" (or "welcome back" and "I'm back"). But they mean so much more than that here. In Japan, these phrases are used by family members when coming home. For Yuna and Tidus, this exchange under these circumstances means they both feel this is where he has family. This is where he belongs. He really says "Tadaima" twice in his dialog, but I broke it into two different translations to stress the intimacy felt the second time he says it. I noticed the English version did the same thing. Just a little background on this scene's dialog, if you didn't already know.

I would like to thank all those who left reviews during the original version's upload and for those who leave reviews for the revision. Thanks for reading! Your kind words and encouragement are very much appreciated. ^_^ I will begin the revision and upload of the final story in this series after a short break. It's called "Spira's Revenge." And it picks up where "Spira's Sphere" left off, but events from this story are also relative to that one.

M'jai~


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